If not for Ryan Williams’ jaw-dropping performance Saturday night, all eyes would have been on Ohio State wide receiver Jeremiah Smith.

The other Five-Star Plus+ receiver in the 2024 recruiting class, Smith has made On3’s True Freshman Standouts list three times in the first five weeks of the season. On Saturday night at Michigan State, the No. 1 prospect in the 2024 class scored two touchdowns with multiple one-handed catches. He opened it up with an end around to the house from 19 yards out in the first quarter.

He made two one-handed catches on Ohio State’s final drive of the first half. The first was when Smith came down with a one-handed grab over two Michigan State defensive backs. He finished the drive with another one-handed catch, catching the ball in stride and scoring a touchdown.

Through four games, Smith has posted 19 catches for 364 yards and five touchdowns. More impressive, he’s averaging 19.2 yards per catch. The 6-foot-3, 215-pound receiver is the cousin of NFL quarterback Geno Smith.

Since July, Smith has doubled his social media following and now has 376,100 followers across Instagram, TikTok and X. His On3 NIL Valuation continues to climb, too. The wide receiver holds a valuation of $1.4 million. The On3 NIL Valuation has grown by $648,000 since July and $249,000 after his performance Saturday at Michigan State.

The valuation is No. 17 in the On3 NIL 100, the first of its kind and defacto NIL ranking of the top 100 high school and college athletes ranked by their On3 NIL Valuation. Over his final two seasons at Hollywood (Florida) Chaminade-Madonna Prep, he caught 151 passes for 2,474 yards and 39 touchdowns.

Smith’s performance picked up steam on social media, boosting his brand value and notoriety. Here are some examples:

+ NBA star and Ohio State fan LeBron James posted on X, “JEREMIAH SMITH!!!! MAN KNOCK IT OFF!!!! MY GOODNESS O-H.” The post has been viewed over 1.6 million times.
+ SportsCenter’s X post of Smith’s one-handed catches has been seen by 2.5 million people.
+ NBC Sports posted a video on X of Smith’s touchdown catch, garnering 729,000 views.

Jeremiah Smith’s established NIL brand

Smith has already inked NIL agreements with the Ohio State-driven NIL collectives The Foundation and The 1870 Society. He also signed with Ricart Automotive in March. He’s in EA Sports College Football 25 as the top-rated freshman in the game. Most recently he inked an endorsement deal with Battle Sports.

Most recently, he became the first college football player to sign with the energy drink company, Red Bull. He joins South Carolina women’s basketball star MiLaysia Fulwiley and Nebraska volleyball’s Bergen Reilly as NIL ambassadors.

Jeremiah Smith has also signed season-long partnerships with American Eagle, Lululemon and Designer Shoe Warehouse.

About the On3 NIL Valuation

The On3 NIL Valuation is the industry’s leading index that sets the standard market NIL value for high school and college athletes. A proprietary algorithm, the On3 NIL Valuation calculates an athlete’s NIL value using dynamic data points targeting three primary categories: performance, influence and exposure.

While the algorithm includes deal data, it does not act as a tracker of the value of NIL deals athletes have completed to date, nor does it set an athlete’s NIL valuation for their entire career.

“Despite what some fans and media believe, there is not an unlimited amount of money being deployed to manage rosters,” said Shannon Terry, the founder and CEO of On3. “Any model – whether it’s today’s broken NCAA ‘student-athlete’ construct or media rights sharing through employment, which is almost a certainty in the near future – demands efficiency based on the athlete and school knowing the athlete’s respective market value.”

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