COLUMBUS, OH– It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that Ohio State had the best wide receiver duo in the country, but seeing it first hand had to be eye-opening for Penn State fans.
Jeremiah Smith came into the season as America’s best returning wideout and has made sure to avoid the dreaded “sophomore slump.”
Carnell Tate previously had been blocked by some of the star receivers OSU has become known for developing, to the point where there was speculation that he would enter the transfer portal this past winter.
Tate has had the best season of his career thus far, and his numbers (34 catches, 587 yards, six touchdowns) hadn’t been far behind Smith’s (49 catches, 602 yards, seven touchdowns) coming into Saturday’s game against Penn State. Both of them lived up to their billing Saturday, with Smith (five catches, 124 yards, touchdown) and Tate (five catches, 112 yards, touchdown) each eclipsing the century mark before the fourth quarter.
It also must be said that Ohio State’s receivers coach and offensive coordinator, Brian Hartline, is confirmed to be a candidate for the Penn State head coaching job, left vacant when the program moved on from James Franklin earlier this month. It’s hard to know whether Hartline viewed this game as an audition for the Penn State job, with PSU AD Pat Kraft watching from the sidelines as he does for every Penn State game.
But if it was an audition, Hartline passed.
