The Ohio State football team came away with a dominant 41-21 win in the Rose Bowl over Oregon to advance to the Semifinal of the College Football Playoff, and freshman wide receiver Jeremiah Smith had an eye-popping performance, which drew high praise from an NFL executive.

“He might be the most advanced receiver I've ever seen at that age,” an NFL executive said, via Jordan Schultz of Fox Sports. “To be so young and so technically sound, then you add the physical tools and things get pretty freaky. Like some built in a lab stuff.”

Smith was dominant, catching seven passes for 187 yards and two touchdowns. Ohio State football has sent plenty of good wide receivers to the NFL in recent years, with Garrett Wilson, Jaxson Smith-Njigba and Marvin Harrison Jr. sticking out as big names. Smith might be the best of the group, as he is just 19 years old and a freshman, so he theoretically might only get better as he gets older. He will have two more years at Ohio State football after this one, but many believe Smith would be ready to play in the NFL right now.

Some evaluators have compared Smith to Julio Jones during his days at Alabama. ESPN's Jordan Reid remarked about that during the game.

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“If you weren't fortunate enough to see Julio play at Alabama, this is what it looked like,” Reid said on X, formerly known as Twitter.

That is very high praise, and we are going to see a ton more of Smith in his college career. He is likely to be part of the 2027 NFL Draft class, which is expected to be stacked. Smith, along with Ryan Williams seem like the top receivers, while quarterbacks like DJ Lagway, Dylan Raiola, and possibly even Arch Manning could be part of that class as well. There are several other quality players as well.

For now, Smith and Ohio State will move on to play Texas in the Semifinal of the College Football Playoff. The winner will play against Penn State, Georgia or Notre Dame in the national championship game. If the Buckeyes turn in an effort like they did against Oregon, they will be hard to beat.