Ohio State's wealth of receiver talent has rivals playing catch-up

Ohio State coach Ryan Day spoke definitively last month about where he believes Buckeyes wide receiver Jeremiah Smith ranks nationally. "I don't think it's even close that Jeremiah Smith is the best offensive player in college football," Day said then. "If it's close, I'd like to know who it is."Day appeared to soften his stance a couple of weeks later to make room for one more Ohio State receiver after Carnell Tate scored two touchdowns in the top-ranked Buckeyes' 34-0 victory over Wisconsin, including a spectacular 33-yard grab between two defenders in which he hung onto the ball despite losing his helmet while landing."He is playing himself to be a first-rounder and All-American," Day said after that game. "He's just a different style of player than Jeremiah, but just as dangerous and just as good."It's not unusual for Ohio State to have multiple future NFL receivers on its roster. Five Ohio State receivers have been selected in the first round of the last four drafts: Garrett Wilson, Chris Olave, Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Marvin Harrison Jr. and Emeka Egbuka.What's notable this year is how the depth of receiving talent in the Big Ten isn't limited to the Buckeyes.Seven of the top 19 Bowl Subdivision players in yards receiving per game are from the Big Ten. The Southeastern Conference, Atlantic Coast Conference and Big 12 each have only two receivers on that list.Smith, generally regarded as the best receiver in college football, isn't draft eligible yet as a sophomore. The Big Ten still has three of the top five and four of the top 10 draft-eligible receivers in the rankings that ESPN draft analyst Mel Kiper Jr. released earlier this month. Kiper had Southern California's Makai Lemon first, Tate third, USC's Ja'Kobi Lane fifth and Washington's Denzel Boston 10th."There's more NFL talent maybe even in the wide receiver pool in the Big Ten than there is any other position, which I don't know if you could have ever said that in the last 100 years," Wisconsin coach Luke Fickell said.Seven Big Ten players are averaging at least 80 yards receiving per game, which would essentially equate to 1,000 yards over a 12-game regular season. As recently as 2017, the Big Ten had only one 1,000-yard receiver."The old-school version of what the Big Ten was — just running the football and big, physical guys, and everything down South was about athleticism and speed — I think that everybody's starting to realize that that's not the case," Fickell said. "I'm not saying that there's more in the Big Ten than there is in the SEC, but I think that what we see and we have seen on a consistent basis is, it's as good as you get."And that's produced plenty of headaches for defenses trying to stop these guys."There's never a break," Michigan coach Sherrone Moore said. "If you decide to take a breath, you're going to lose."The easy explanation for this increase in receiving talent across the Big Ten is the addition of Oregon, USC, Washington and UCLA to the conference. USC leads the nation and Washington ranks 26th in passing yards per game. Oregon annually has one of the nation's most dynamic offenses.Conference expansion resulted in an end to divisional play. Big Ten Network analyst Jake Butt, who played tight end at Michigan from 2013-16, says that also has contributed to the change in style."When it was the East and the West, you think about the teams that consistently would win the West," Butt said. "It was Iowa. It was Wisconsin. What that incentivized programs to do was win by playing great defense, running the football, playing ball control, winning on special teams."Butt said those old West Division schools have needed to diversify to adapt to the arrival of the former Pac-12 schools plus the improved coaching across the league."You used to be able to say you could have a successful season in the Big Ten West, and you would never need to throw the ball," Butt said. "You could have a successful season just by running the ball. Now because of the competition conference-wide, all these teams have been forced to adapt."That adaptation takes time.Of the seven Big Ten receivers on pace for 1,000-yard seasons, the only one from a former West Division school is Illinois' Hank Beatty. The others are Lemon, Rutgers teammates KJ Duff and Ian Strong, Smith, Tate and Boston.One noteworthy aspect of this year's surge in receiving depth is the number of Big Ten schools with multiple productive wideouts. Rutgers has Duff and Strong. USC's Lemon and Lane are both likely early-round draft picks. No. 2 Indiana's Elijah Sarratt has 10 touchdown catches to lead all FBS players, while teammate Omar Cooper Jr. has seven."It allows us to go out there and play more free, knowing you can't double-team one person because we've got more weapons than you can hold," Cooper said.But all these teams ultimately are playing catch-up to Ohio State, which could make a case it has the two best receivers in all of college football.Smith and Tate are so good that they've boosted the Heisman Trophy chances of Ohio State quarterback Julian Sayin, who has capitalized on the opportunity to throw to these future NFL receivers. The depth of receiving talent across the Big Ten has plenty of its quarterbacks feeling confident each Saturday."We've got two guys who, when it's one-on-one and you're looking both sides, I have full confidence that both these guys are going to go score a touchdown for us," Sayin said.