Ohio State Coach Gets Honest on Superstar’s Strange Performance

The Ohio State Buckeyes defeated the Texas Longhorns in the Cotton Bowl to move on to the National Championship Game, but they won the game in rather strange fashion.

They essentially won it without Jeremiah Smith.

The superstar freshman wide receiver logged just one catch for three yards against Texas in what was his least productive outing of the season.

The Longhorns keyed on Smith throughout the game, sending help over the top and shadowing him with multiple defenders. The one time Smith did get the ball, he was swarmed by a sea of Longhorns defenders.

Even though Ohio State beat Texas, not having Smith make an impact is certainly not ideal, and it’s obviously something the Buckeyes would like to avoid against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish next Monday.

Head coach Ryan Day was asked about Smith’s skimpy output, but he seems to be developing other plans to get his star pass-catcher involved.

“It’s a little bit more about execution than it is anything else,” Day said, via Andrea Adelson of ESPN. “We weren’t able to sustain a few of those drives and connect on a couple other plays. [Smith is] obviously a huge part of our offense, so there’s different ways that teams will adjust based on what he’s done and what he’s capable of. We’ll identify what those are in this game and then go from there.”

The question is whether or not Notre Dame will be able to utilize the same strategy Texas employed to take Smith out of the game.

Surely, the Fighting Irish will be watching the tape to see just how the Longhorns defended Smith.

Now, it’s up to Day and Co. to make the proper adjustments.