TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Guy Edmond thought he had an interception. Jeremiah Smith thought differently.
That’s when Smith, the No. 1 wide receiver recruit in the nation, soared past Edmond and yanked the ball out of the sky.
“(I) got mossed,” said Edmond, an uncommitted three-star defensive back from Fort Lauderdale (Fla.) Cardinal Gibbons. “His size caught up to me. (The play) went pretty viral.”
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The highlight — from the spring of 2022 when Edmond and Smith were still sophomores — is pinned to the top of Smith’s page on X. In describing the clip, Smith wrote: “Cut different.”
Cut Different 🥷🏿💯 pic.twitter.com/tToWx888AY
— TTWFO (@Jermiah_Smith1) August 19, 2022
Smith, who stands 6-4 and weighs 200 pounds, is cut differently. Barring a late change by one of the recruiting services, he will be the first wide receiver to earn the No. 1 overall ranking in the 247Sports Composite since Dorial Green-Beckham in 2012.
Those who have watched him up close consider Smith a generational talent.
“High school level in-state? He’s top three all-time,” said recruiting analyst Larry Blustein, who has covered high school football in Florida since the early 1970s.
“Andre Johnson was pretty good. Wes Chandler was elite. Ron Sellers dominated. I never use the word the best when it comes to comparing players in different eras. Different generation. Different times. Smith is the best of his generation. One hundred percent of the people covering or watching football now never watched the 1960s, ’70s or ’80s, so it really becomes subjective. But he is definitely the best of his generation.”
In Smith’s final high school game on Thursday, the Ohio State commitment went off with 11 catches for 170 yards and a touchdown. Hollywood Chaminade, the No. 2-ranked team in the nation according to MaxPreps, rolled to a 56-0 win over previously unbeaten Clearwater Central Catholic on the campus of Florida A&M.
Smith caught the first three passes of the game from his quarterback, NC State commitment Cedrick Bailey, and scored on a quick screen, dashing past the Marauders defense untouched on a 50-yard play.
Just like that. FEED SMITTY. 😤 @Jermiah_Smith1
Jeremiah Smith scores first in the 1M State title.
He made it look too easy. 💨 pic.twitter.com/FRs8UJERCc
— 305 Sports (@305Sportss) December 7, 2023
Ohio State receivers coach Brian Hartline, Miami receivers coach Kevin Beard and three Florida State assistants watched Smith and Chaminade up close from the sideline.
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Smith, who wore FSU gloves in the first half of Thursday’s game, is staying in Tallahassee for the weekend for an official visit with the Seminoles — his final official visit in what has been an eventful recruiting process.
“I just want to enjoy myself this weekend, spend time with (former Chaminade teammate) Edwin Joseph and the rest of the players here,” Smith said. “I’ve seen everything I’ve had to see.”
Smith will sign with his college choice at a ceremony on Dec. 20. Miami, Florida State and Ohio State will all have new starting quarterbacks in 2024. There’s no doubt Smith is paying attention to see what happens at that position over the next few weeks.
Miami is trying to flip Smith’s current quarterback, Bailey, who has been an NC State pledge for months. Wolfpack coach Dave Doeren attended Thursday’s game.
“As a receiver, that should definitely play a big part of your recruitment because you don’t want to just go there and not have a quarterback,” Smith said. “You’ve got to have somebody to get you the ball.”
That’s the future.
In search of better detail of what it was like to line up opposite Smith during his high school career, The Athletic sought the opinions of high-end players and coaches who tried — and usually failed — to slow him down.
• American Heritage coach Mike Smith — who is not related to Chaminade’s star receiver — has seen some of the best players to come out of South Florida over the past two decades.
“He’s a freak show,” Smith said. “The size, the speed that he has, you see it in track, too, with the 110 hurdles. He runs over them like they’re not even there.”
Mike Smith said Damari Brown, a former four-star recruit who is now at Miami, did a good job against Jeremiah Smith in 2022. But the star receiver burned Heritage late on an 85-yard touchdown catch to lift Chaminade to a 42-34 victory.
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This year, Chaminade jumped out to a 21-0 lead and held on for a 28-16 victory behind Smith’s six catches for 83 yards and two scores.
“He’s one of the top guys to ever come out of South Florida,” Mike Smith said. “He’s a matchup issue. Even when you think you’re doing a good job, you’re really not. He makes one play and blows the whole game open. You can scheme him all you want, bracket him, he’s still going to make plays because he’s so talented. That’s how you know he’s a special player. Everybody knows the ball is coming to him, and he still makes the play.”
• Edmond has lined up against many of the top receivers to come out of the state over the last four cycles, including five-stars Brandon Inniss (Ohio State), Hykeem Williams (Florida State) and Jaime Ffrench (Class of 2025 Alabama commitment).
Edmond said Smith is the best of that elite group.
“His body plays a big part,” said Edmond, who first played with Smith in the ninth grade at the Football Hotbed All-Star Game and has faced him the past two seasons both in high school and on the 7-on-7 circuit.
Chaminade beat Cardinal Gibbons 41-4 in September. Smith finished with eight catches for 93 yards and a touchdown. Edmond played safety that night.
“He runs every route in the route tree, ” Edmond said. “You must respect the go-ball, post or fade when he’s out there, which makes it so tough. This year they did a lot more with him at Chaminade. They didn’t just throw it up to him and say go get it.
“For me, it’s not just the body that makes him special. It’s the strides. He ran track, did hurdles, and you can see the difference. Once he picks his knees up, it’s hard to keep up. Hykeem (Williams) is the same way.”
Edmond said that Smith rarely says anything on the field to opponents — unless they instigate it first.
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“If you say something to JJ, he might say something back,” he said. “But I don’t ever remember him being like that. He doesn’t talk a lot of trash.”
• Chris Ewald, a Michigan commitment, is ranked the No. 12 cornerback in the Class of 2025. He has had the “privilege” of covering Smith and Josiah “Jojo” Trader (No. 39 overall in the 2024 cycle) every day in practice for the past two years.
What’s the difference between two of the best receivers in the country?
“Jojo has a different level of ball skills. He plays fast and with finesse. (Smith), he knows how to use his body very well. Both of them have great hands.”
• J’Vari Flowers, a sophomore at Miami Central, is one of the top up-and-coming cornerbacks in the Class of 2026. He covered Smith at the OT7 national championships and again last September when Chaminade beat Central 31-28.
Smith had nine catches for 101 yards and two scores in the win but had far less success when the 6-foot, 175-pound Flowers lined up opposite him in the second half.
“I figured some things out on film,” Flowers said. “He’s got a tendency to release outside leverage. So, I took it away from him. He still got me on one play. I bit and he got outside and got me. He’s big and physical. You can’t be overaggressive with him.”
Flowers has Power 5 offers from Louisville, Texas A&M, Texas, Missouri, Nebraska and Maryland. He has known Smith for about eight years and said he deserves to be ranked No. 1 in the country.
“He was always one of the best,” Flowers said. “But when he hit his growth spurt, he hit another level. What really helped him was his growth spurt in the ninth grade. Jeremiah Smith is a dog, though. He’s never going to say too much. He’s just going to get his job done.”
(Photo: Manny Navarro / The Athletic)
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