Jeremiah Smith, Carnell Tate land on preseason watch list for Biletnikoff Award

COLUMBUS — Ohio State wide receiver Jeremiah Smith enters this season as the best player in college football. Carnell Tate is among the best returning receivers in the country, as well.

Both star receivers are on the preseason watch list for the Biletnikoff Award, which is given annually to the country’s most outstanding wide receiver for each college football season.

Smith was that last year, but he didn’t win the award as a true freshman. That award instead went to Colorado wide receiver and cornerback Travis Hunter, who also won the Heisman Trophy.

Now Smith returns as the clear-cut best receiver in the sport after posting 76 grabs for 1,315 receiving yards and 15 receiving touchdowns to go along with a rushing touchdown a year ago.

Tate, meanwhile, was the third receiver for the Buckeyes last year, behind both Smith and Emeka Egbuka, who was a first-round draft pick to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers this past spring. Tate notably caught two touchdown passes in the road win in his hometown of Chicago back in November and was the team’s leading receiver (seven catches for 87 yards) in the Cotton Bowl semifinal win over Texas.

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Smith was named Bruce Feldman’s No. 1 Freak in all of college football heading into this season after showing up at No. 7 last year, before he ever played a college football game, earlier this week. Tate wasn’t on the Freaks list, but he certainly fits the bill as one.

Tate is stepping up as a leader in his third year with the Buckeyes program.

“That’s very much out of my comfort zone,” Tate said Friday after the second day of Buckeyes camp. “This is not last year’s team. We’ve got a lot of young guys, we’ve got to grow up as a team, become more mature, and everybody’s got to take that next step.”

Both are among the two best wide receivers in college football for the upcoming season. And they’re being hyped as such with their inclusion on the preseason watch list for the Biletnikoff Award.