Internet Reacts To Jaxon Smith-Njigba Wearing Wrong Shoe Size At Ohio State

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Internet Reacts To Jaxon Smith-Njigba Wearing Wrong Shoe Size At Ohio State

Originally posted on College Sports Only
By Spencer Rozell | Last updated Apr 18, 2026 9:38 AM ET

In one of the weirdest stories of this offseason, we may have found the reason why Ohio State couldn’t get over the finish line in 2022.

NEW: Jaxon Smith-Njigba wore a size 12 at Ohio State and had hamstring issues.

Seattle switched him to a 10.5 and the problems went away.

The Seahawks have been using body scans to customize gear for each player and it’s paying off pic.twitter.com/YLMiCoIRaH

— College Transfer Portal (@CollegeFBPortal) April 17, 2026

Jaxon Smith-Njigba, or JSN, suffered hamstring injuries in college that sidelined him for all but three games in 2022, a season in which Ohio State lost by a single point to Georgia in the College Football Playoff semifinal.

It turns out that not sizing their star player’s cleat size could’ve been the reason they were missing the firepower to win a national championship.

Ohio State was inches away from a National Championship in 2022, missing a go-ahead FG as time expired against Georgia in the Peach Bowl, who then blew out TCU.

Jaxon Smith-Njigba missed that game and most of the 2022 season, possibly because OSU couldn’t fit his shoes right. https://t.co/jtw778NYqo

— RedditCFB (@RedditCFB) April 17, 2026

The internet reacted to the craziness of not sizing players’ cleats.

The “body scanning device” https://t.co/hypL7D7UjH pic.twitter.com/spzvTqtewm

— KC NoDak Brim (@brim006) April 17, 2026

Ohio State has every single resource a football program could possibly have, but not one of these?!?! https://t.co/SlVwvav9Wc pic.twitter.com/xlHY1l9PJr

— Ari Wasserman (@AriWasserman) April 17, 2026