Ohio State WR Jeremiah Smith sends strong warning to Notre Dame ahead of the National Championship

Though Ohio State beat Texas last week to now play in tomorrow’s National Championship against against Notre Dame, it was an uncharacteristic game for star freshman Jeremiah Smith against the Longhorns. 

Smith caught just one pass for three yards and was mostly a non-factor in terms of his production. The star freshman was certainly a decoy and made an impact in that aspect.

Ahead of Monday night’s game, Notre Dame freshman cornerback Leonard Moore has already revealed that Notre Dame is going to play man-to-man coverage.

“Going into this game we’re not going to change who we are,” Moore said on Wednesday. “We’re going to play man coverage like we do every week. We’re going to go out there and challenge their receivers.”

Man-to-man coverage is something teams haven’t found much success with against Ohio State due to the ability of the playmakers on the offense.

Jeremiah Smith sends a strong message to Notre Dame

Smith was not happy with the game against Texas but understood that he was still a positive to the team.

“You watch the film … they doubled me, tripled me,” Smith said about the game against Texas. “It was frustrating, but being a decoy helped us win the game.”

Now, Smith is chomping at the bit about the Fighting Irish sticking to their guns and rolling out man coverage against the Buckeyes. Smith went over 100 receiving yards in each of the first two College Football Playoff games and had four touchdowns.

"If you are going to play man [to-man defense] against Ohio State, be ready," Smith said, via ESPN's Paolo Uggetti. "I can't wait to put on a show."

With the special freshman season that Smith has put together already with 1,227 receiving yards and 14 touchdowns, expecting him to be quiet two games in a row would be silly.