Jeremiah Smith turns down the Heisman talk as Ohio State and Oregon brace for a big season

Ohio State wide receiver Jeremiah Smith met the offseason with a deliberately modest message about the biggest individual prize in college football. In an interview highlighted Monday, Smith downplayed his chances of winning the Heisman Trophy, despite being generally regarded as the sport’s top returning player regardless of position.

Smith’s stance reflects a familiar tension for elite returning stars. College football hype tends to arrive early, and awards narratives often build around players who are already positioned as the most complete pro-style bets for stardom. The twist here is that Smith, viewed by many observers as a natural centerpiece, appears more focused on team expectations than on personal hardware.

The framing matters because Ohio State’s offensive identity in recent seasons has regularly depended on playmakers who can shift games with route precision and after-catch production. With Smith described in the broader conversation as the top returning player, the Buckeyes’ ceiling naturally rises when opponents are forced to defend someone who is already proven and already in the national spotlight.

Oregon is part of the same preseason storyline, though from a different position on the field. Dante Moore, the Ducks’ quarterback, is also referenced in the same context of players drawing “thinking big” talk as the season approaches. Moore’s role, and how Oregon manages expectations around it, adds a second high-profile axis to the Heisman and national-title conversations.

There is also a recruiting and public-relations layer to the way both programs are being discussed. When teams with heavy national followings produce returning stars, the attention tends to spill beyond just their fan bases, reaching preseason media cycles, award watchers, and casual viewers who decide early which players “feel inevitable.” Smith’s decision to keep the Heisman question in perspective is likely as much about setting internal tone as it is about deflecting outsiders.

What to watch next is how both players translate that approach into the season’s first meaningful tests. For Smith and the Buckeyes, the question will be whether the offense can repeatedly turn talent into sustained drives against defenses that game-plan specifically for elite receiving threats. For Moore and Oregon, the emphasis will be on consistency and decision-making, especially as opponents begin to treat the quarterback position as the lever for everything that comes after.