LeBron James watched Jeremiah Smith go for 206 yards and two touchdowns against Iowa on Saturday, then posted five words on X: “THROW IT TO 4! #HEISMAN” Smith wears No. 4 for Ohio State. The most famous athlete in America just filed a Heisman ballot in public.
Smith caught 11 passes for those 206 yards in a 31-14 road win over Iowa, who came into the game ranked No. 14. Ohio State was No. 5. It was Smith’s second straight 200-yard game, which is not a thing receivers do in back-to-back weeks against ranked defenses.
The Numbers Are Not Close
Through five games Smith has 823 receiving yards and nine touchdowns, an average of 164.6 yards per game. On Saturday he became Ohio State’s all-time leader in receptions and receiving touchdowns, and he now holds the school records for career catches at 207, receiving touchdowns at 36 and 100-yard games at 15.
He is doing it while every defensive coordinator he faces builds the week around stopping him. Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz compared him to Saquon Barkley and Randy Moss afterward. Coaches who just lost do not hand out comparisons like that casually.
So Will A Receiver Actually Win It?
The honest answer is that the Heisman is a quarterback award and has been for most of modern memory. Voters reward the player who touches the ball on every snap, and a receiver who sees eight targets a game is structurally disadvantaged against a quarterback with 40 touches. That bias is real and it is why this conversation keeps dying every few years.
Smith is the best case anyone has built against it in a long time. He is averaging more yards per game than most teams’ entire receiving corps, he plays for a top-five team that will be on national television every week, and his production has gone up as the competition has improved. The resume is not asking for a favor.
My stance: he should win it, and if Ohio State keeps winning he probably will. The voters’ usual excuse, that a receiver cannot be the most valuable player on a title contender, does not survive a player who is simultaneously the most double-teamed man in college football and the leading receiver in it.
Why LeBron’s Post Matters More Than It Should
Heisman races are won on narrative as much as production, and narrative is built by whoever is loudest in the weeks that matter. LeBron has a bigger megaphone than any analyst on any network, and he just aimed it at a wide receiver in October. That reaches people who were never going to read a stat page.
It also reframes the argument. Once a casual fan hears LeBron James say a receiver deserves the Heisman, the burden shifts to the people explaining why he does not. Smith has handled his half of the job. The campaign is now being run for him by someone who understands exactly how attention works.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.