Ohio State WR Jeremiah Smith could have gone 1st overall in this year’s NFL draft had he been eligible. Many deem him the most polished WR prospect to play college football. For Alabama fans, though, that title is held by one of their architects of the 2009 national title win.
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Indiana head coach Curt Cignetti was Alabama’s WRs coach from 2007 to 2010 and helped the team recruit elite high school classes. The 2008 class stood out as the program finished No. 1 in recruiting rankings. The crown jewel of that recruiting class was a former 5-star WR, whom Nick Saban acknowledges changed the culture of the program. Now, 3 years after the WR’s retirement in the NFL, Cignetti has found his successor.
“I coached Julio (Jones), yes. Julio was also a great player at Alabama. Very similar. This guy (Jeremiah Smith) is a little looser, more flexible. I think maybe a hair faster,” Indiana head coach Curt Cignetti said on May 1 about Jeremiah Smith. “You cover him as well as you can and hope the ball is not placed well. I mean, he’s a freak. He’s a great player – the greatest at that position that I’ve seen at that age. He’s a weapon.”
Nick Saban joined Alabama in 2007 as head coach, and the program was coming off a 6-win season. The roster wasn’t yet elite, and there was a clear need for a leader in the locker room. Saban’s 2007 recruiting class also fell short of being spectacular, with not a single five-star recruit. Something needed to change, and it needed to happen swiftly. Enter a 6’4″ and 220 lbs 5-star WR in Julio Jones in 2008.
Curt Cignetti compares Jeremiah Smith to Julio Jones, who he coached at Alabama: “This guy (Smith) is a little looser, a little more flexible. Very similar. Maybe a hair faster.”
“I think he changed the culture of the work ethic of skill players on offense. Which is really important to turning around a program,” Nick Saban said about Jones. “Because he’s such a hard worker. He had so much mental and physical toughness in terms of the way he competed and the way he played. That it was really unusual for a receiver to be that way. Whether it was a running play or a passing play, it really didn’t matter.”
When the college football world hadn’t heard about true freshman sensations running riot, Jones did it 16 years earlier than Jeremiah Smith. He notched 924 yards at an impressive 15.9 yards per catch. The turnaround for Bama was complete, and the program finished the regular season undefeated. Against LSU, for instance, when the game went into overtime, Jones showed his clutch abilities with his 128-yard receiving performance, as Bama won 27-21.
“We went down to LSU, the same year. He had a lot of catches that day. Tough game, and LSU was really good,” Curt Cignetti said about Jones. “On the very first play of overtime, we called his number. Slant and go, we used to call it a ‘sluggo.’ May have been press (coverage), I can’t remember. But he went up for the contested catch. I believe it was against Peterson. Made the play down at the 1 and we won the game. I just remember him stepping up in the biggest games.”
For Cignetti, Julio was always a “lead-by-example” kind of player and influenced several others to raise their standards. He would never shy away from challenges, and Cignetti would often find him saying, “Get me the ball” in tough situations. And like magic, Jones did his job for three years consecutively, notching 2,653 receiving yards. No wonder the Falcons picked him 6th overall in the 2011 NFL draft, and he earned a whopping $147 million in the NFL, playing 13 seasons.
Considering the kind of talent Julio has, he was undoubtedly a once-in-a-generation player. Imagine how good Jeremiah Smith would be, since Cignetti dubbed him to be more polished than his former pupil. Nevertheless, Smith is benefiting more from playing in a more WR-friendly Ryan Day’s ‘Air Coryell’ hybrid system than Jones’ pro-style power-run offense under Nick Saban.
How Jeremiah Smith can surpass Julio Jones’ potential this year
Ohio State’s Jeremiah Smith has a similar build to Jones, standing at 6’3″ and 223 lbs. His catch radius is already world-class, and his ability to excel under pressure was evident during OSU’s national championship-winning season in 2024. Because of his elite skill sets, Ryan Day uses Smith like a chess piece, from deploying him at the boundary to creating slot mismatches to using him as a red-zone bully. Compare that to Nick Saban’s Bama philosophy, and the schemes are vastly different.
Unlike Smith, Jones was a versatile threat in Alabama’s spread offense, featuring vertical air-raid concepts. So, when the OSU sensation thrives on creating space and matchup hunting, Jones was a player designed for structured, timed offenses. In terms of skillsets, the Bama legend built his games on violent route breaks, physical stems, and elite timing. Smith, on the contrary, is a lot more flexible than Julio.
“He’s fluid like A.J., but explosive and a dog at the catch point like Julio,” an AFC executive said about Jeremiah Smith to ESPN. Another AFC scout described how Jeremiah Smith is the talk of the NFL town and will be easily a top-5 pick come the 2027 NFL draft. “Everyone [in the league] is talking about him. You hear all the buzz: ‘Who is this dude? How can we get this guy on our team? We’ll see how Jeremiah’s story goes.”
Jeremiah Smith has already totaled 2,558 receiving yards and is just 100 yards shy of Jones’ total collegiate receiving yards. The OSU #4 will easily surpass that threshold this year, and with a 1,000+-yard performance and a natty-winning season, a Heisman would be the first thing Smith would garner. He is finally the leader in OSU’s WR room now after Carnell Tate’s departure, and he has made his ‘standard’ clear to his teammates.
