Indiana's Curt Cignetti on Ohio State's Jeremiah Smith: 'Greatest I've Seen at That Age'

LAS VEGAS -- Indiana football coach Curt Cignetti laughed, smirked and contemplated before trying to muster an answer that teams across the country struggled to find in 2024: How do you cover Ohio State receiver Jeremiah Smith?

The Hoosiers limited Smith to his lowest regular season marks with three receptions for 34 yards in Ohio State's 38-15 win Nov. 23. Only Texas, which held Smith to one catch for three yards in the College Football Playoff semifinals, had more success than Indiana.

But Cignetti still doesn't have much advice for the teams slated to face Smith, a 19-year-old sophomore, this fall.

"You cover him as well as you can and hope the ball is not placed very well," Cignetti said Tuesday at Big Ten Media Day in Las Vegas. "I mean, he's a freak."

The 6-foot-3, 215-pound Smith led the Big Ten with 1,315 receiving yards and 15 receiving touchdowns as a freshman in 2024. A first-team All-American by USA Today, Smith took home considerable Big Ten hardware, earning the conference's Richter-Howard Wide Receiver of the Year and Thompson-Randle El Freshman of the Year awards.

Smith became the first Ohio State freshman to eclipse 1,000 receiving yards, and his 15 touchdown grabs were the second-most in school history.

The term "generational" is often overused in sports, but Cignetti said Smith is unlike any player he's coached with or against in four decades on the sidelines.

"He's a great player -- the greatest at that position I've seen at that age," Cignetti said. "He's a weapon."

Cignetti has an extensive background playing and working with quarterbacks, but he coached receivers from 2007-10 at Alabama, where he doubled as the recruiting coordinator. Cignetti helped recruit seven-time NFL Pro Bowl receiver Julio Jones to Tuscaloosa, and Cignetti coached Jones for three years.

Jones led the NFL in receiving yards during the 2010s, compiling 12,125 yards from 2011-19, and earned five All-Pro nods.

Cignetti saw Jones before he reached those heights -- and the Hoosiers' second-year coach believes Smith is even better.

"Julio was also a great player. Very similar," Cignetti said. "This guy is a little looser, more flexible, I think. Maybe a hair faster."

Barring a postseason meeting, Indiana isn't scheduled to play Ohio State in 2025, but Smith and the Buckeyes will head to Bloomington in 2026. Perhaps then, Cignetti will have a clearer answer on defending Smith -- though his Tuesday take indicates such a solution requires luck as much as skill.

And that, for a coach who prides himself on solving problems, is more than enough reason to laugh and smile.