Ohio State keeps winning, Jeremiah Smith keeps breaking records, and nobody in Columbus has much reason to complain. But there is a pretty obvious problem hiding inside all that success. Against Iowa, Julian Sayin threw into triple coverage when the ball probably should have gone somewhere else, and Smith still turned it into a 54-yard gain. Ryan Day flat-out admitted it was “not a great read.” That is how absurd Smith has become. Sayin can stare him down, force a questionable throw into traffic and still walk away looking right because Smith keeps cleaning up the mess.

That is exactly why Tom Fornelli is worried. The Buckeyes can keep feeding Jeremiah Smith while it works, but the real test comes when a defense finally takes him away.

“Ohio State is just dropping back and throwing the ball to Jeremiah Smith repeatedly,” Fornelli said on the Cover 3 podcast. “There’s no reason for them not to do it. It continues to work. But they’re going to keep doing it until somebody stops them. It’s just I worry about when somebody stops him if it’s going to be too late.“

That concern is less about Smith and more about Julian Sayin. If Sayin keeps defaulting to his star receiver, Ohio State risks reaching the postseason without enough trust built into its second and third options. Playoff defenses will bracket Smith, roll safety help toward him and force somebody else to make plays.

The problem is that Smith has made even aggressive coverage look useless. Illinois tried single coverage and watched him go for more than 200 yards. Iowa mixed in doubles and triples, and he still finished with 11 catches, 206 yards and two touchdowns.

Bud Elliott still believes Ohio State has time to develop more weapons. “I do think they still have a lot of time to keep developing better guys, though,” Elliott said.

Fornelli pushed back immediately. “You can’t develop a guy if Julian Sayin never looks to him. That’s the other thing. I feel like Julian Sayin is dropping back, and it’s Jeremiah, Jeremiah, Jeremiah are his first three reads. I think Arthur Smith is spamming him.”

That puts the pressure on Arthur Smith to get Devin McCuin, Brandon Inniss and Chris Henry Jr. more involved before the postseason. Elliott acknowledged that Ohio State is clearly designing ways to feature Smith, but he also pointed to Texas as proof that the approach can be disrupted.

“I think they’re designing ways to get him the ball, like his numbers continue to be awesome on a per-target basis,” Elliott said. “I mean, 15 targets, 206 like that somebody might take that away. You could say Texas took that away in the second half, but like Sayin also missed him a couple times in the second half. He could miss anybody else who was open as well. Texas did a nice job.”

That Texas game remains the clearest warning sign. Smith was held without a catch in the second half, while the rest of Ohio State’s receivers combined for only two. The Buckeyes blew a 20-point lead in a 24-23 loss.

That is the question Ohio State has to answer before January: not whether Smith can dominate, but whether Sayin and the rest of the offense can function when he does not.

Ryan Day Finally Gets an Answer on Defense

While Ohio State’s offense is creating questions about its dependence on Jeremiah Smith, Ryan Day may have finally gotten an answer on the other side of the ball. The Buckeyes had looked unsettled defensively after replacing Arvell Reese, Sonny Styles and Caleb Downs, and Illinois made that painfully obvious by putting up 462 total yards and 199 on the ground. Even Urban Meyer pointed to that vulnerability before the Iowa game, warning that the Hawkeyes could turn it into a fight if they were able to move the ball consistently.

Instead, Ohio State flipped the script. Iowa managed just 238 total yards and 39 rushing yards, while the Buckeyes forced turnovers and repeatedly got off the field.

“That was a huge step for this group in the right direction collectively,” Day said. “I think there’s no question that replacing those guys doesn’t just happen overnight. So figuring out what’s right for this group is part of the process.”

Day also felt the performance answered some of the questions that had followed Ohio State’s defense into Iowa.

“We’ve had some things that we gotta get better at, but I think we answered some questions today. The idea of bend but don’t break, I don’t know. I think there’s times we have to apply pressure. I think we played some man coverage early on, and they did a nice job with some of those man routes. But overall, I think the way that our defense played, creating turnovers was critical. Getting those three-and-outs was big. I know everybody on defense wanted to finish that last drive and get off the field, but overall it was a good team win.”

That does not mean the defense is suddenly fixed. Ohio State has still allowed 38 of its 63 points this season in the fourth quarter, and tougher tests are coming. But after spending weeks trying to figure out what this new-look unit actually was, Day finally saw a version he can build around.