Ohio State has been the best program in college football over the last two seasons, winning a Big Ten title and its first national championship under Ryan Day, largely because Jeremiah Smith became the best amateur player in the country almost the moment he arrived. None of that happens in Columbus if one SEC powerhouse had just kept recruiting him the way it once did.

“Growing up, my dream school was Alabama when Nick Saban was there,” the unanimous All-American said at Big Ten Media Days in Chicago. “But they wasn’t recruiting me. That was crazy. I mean, I always dreamed about going to Alabama because a lot of guys at that time from South Florida was going to ‘Bama and having success like Amari Cooper, Jerry Jeudy, Calvin Ridley.”

Smith grew up in South Florida idolizing Alabama’s pipeline of elite receivers, and Alabama wasn’t a fantasy destination out of nowhere either. Back in February 2022, after the Crimson Tide extended him an offer, Smith told Touchdown Alabama directly how much it meant to him.

“I was excited,” he said at the time. “Alabama is a great program and was my favorite school growing up. To hear from them and get an offer is amazing.”

That early excitement never turned into the full-court recruiting push it would have taken to actually land him. According to Smith, the reason wasn’t talent evaluation. It came down to timing.

“I think I committed to Ohio State too early, and that’s why they stopped,” Smith said. “They thought there was no chance.”

Smith committed to Ohio State in December 2022, a full year before National Signing Day, as the top receiver and No. 5 overall prospect in the 2024 class. Once he locked in with Brian Hartline’s staff, Alabama’s coaches appeared to treat his recruitment as settled and moved on rather than making a real push to flip him.

Alabama pivoted instead to Ryan Coleman-Williams, the No. 3 receiver and No. 5 overall prospect in that same class. Coleman-Williams hasn’t been a bust by any means, racking up 97 catches for 1,554 yards and 12 touchdowns across two seasons and earning First Team All-SEC honors in 2024 before a rougher 2025. But next to what Smith has done in Columbus, the gap is impossible to ignore. Smith has piled up 163 career receptions for 2,558 yards and 27 touchdowns across 29 games, collecting back-to-back First Team All-American, Big Ten Receiver of the Year, and First Team All-Big Ten honors along the way, on top of the national championship the draft’s title alludes to.

Heading into 2026, Smith is considered a lock to be a top pick in the next NFL Draft, and Alabama fans are left wondering what a Smith-Coleman-Williams receiver tandem in Tuscaloosa might have looked like instead.

Why the Alabama snub was a blessing in disguise

Even if Alabama had landed him, the dream scenario Smith grew up imagining would have collapsed before he ever played a down. The whole appeal was playing for Nick Saban, and Saban retired after the 2023 season, meaning Smith, as a member of the 2024 class, never would have suited up under him regardless of where he signed.

What followed at Alabama only reinforces how much instability Smith would have walked into. Kalen DeBoer arrived from Washington, fresh off his own national championship game appearance there, and a wave of Alabama players transferred out once he took over, including Julian Sayin, who left for Ohio State and is now Smith’s own starting quarterback in Columbus.

In a strange twist, Alabama’s recruiting miscalculation ended up giving Smith exactly the stability his career needed. He landed in a program that had already built the receiver pipeline he wanted to be part of, avoided a coaching change that scattered talent out of Tuscaloosa, and became a national champion and a projected top pick instead.

Ohio State opens its 2026 season against Ball State on September 5, with Smith heading into his third year in Columbus alongside five-star freshman Chris Henry Jr. and senior Brandon Inniss, chasing a repeat of the run Alabama once had a real shot at claiming for itself.