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Who will step up to form Ohio State’s new Big 3 wide receivers?
By Alex Hickey
Published:
No Big Ten team loses more talent at a single position in the upcoming season than Ohio State at wide receiver. Garrett Wilson and Chris Olave could very well both be taken within the first 10 picks of the NFL Draft, and it will be shocking if either player makes it past 20th.
In the same token, every other Big Ten program would love to have Ohio State’s issues at the moment. The Buckeyes’ receiving room was so deep last year that Jameson Williams bolted for Alabama in order to guarantee more playing time.
Just think about that for a minute. A guy transferred to Alabama to play more. And as a result, Williams will likely be a first-round pick — just like Olave and Wilson.
CJ Stroud, already a Heisman finalist in 2021, will need to find some new targets if he is to bring the trophy back to Columbus this December.
Ohio State’s spring game, which is on Saturday, should provide some insight into the candidates.
The sure thing
Jaxon Smith-Njigba
It can be argued that Smith-Njigba was already better than Olave and Wilson as a sophomore. And if that argument was based solely on stats rather than film, it would be accurate.
Smith-Njigba led the Buckeyes with 95 receptions for 1,606 yards. And if anybody thought he racked up those stats as a result of the coverage given to Olave and Wilson, he put that notion to bed in the Rose Bowl. Smith-Njigba rewrote all sorts of Ohio State and Rose Bowl records, catching 15 passes for 347 yards and 3 touchdowns against a solid Utah defense.
Though he was widely viewed as the No. 3 guy in last season’s Big 3, there’s no question Smith-Njigba is the top dog in 2022. As a result, don’t expect to see a whole lot of him on Saturday.
Sophomore studs?
Smith-Njigba had 10 catches for 49 yards as a freshman before breaking out as a sophomore. There are a couple of Bucks who could be on a similar path.
Marvin Harrison Jr.
You know who his dad is — for one reason or another. But the Rose Bowl also provided a platform for Marvin Jr. to show he can catch the ball just like pops.
Harrison Jr. outdid his entire regular-season output in the Rose Bowl, finishing with 6 receptions for 71 yards and 3 touchdowns. Prior to that, he had 5 catches for 68 yards.
Given Stroud’s obvious rapport with him, he seems poised to blow up this year.
Emeka Egbuka
Egbuka was a breakthrough performer in last year’s spring game. An early-enrollee at the time, he was credited for 123 yards on 7 catches.
He finished with 6 catches for 191 yards in his freshman season. Much like Harrison, most of that output was in the Rose Bowl, where he had 3 receptions for 46 yards.
The breakthrough veteran
Julian Fleming
Due to injuries and a stacked depth chart, we haven’t seen what Fleming is capable of just yet.
Fleming didn’t practice last spring while recovering from shoulder surgery. He then injured his hamstring against Tulsa in Week 3 and missed the next 5 games.
Fleming’s breakthrough game was — you guessed it, the Rose Bowl — where he had 5 receptions for 35 yards.
Heading into his junior season, Fleming may have a leg up on Ohio State’s incoming freshmen as far as putting himself in the mix.
The early-enrollees
Caleb Burton
Burton arrives from the same high school program as Wilson — Lake Travis in Austin, Texas. So it’s safe to say he knows what he’s getting in to at Ohio State, and that the Buckeyes have a pretty good idea of his capabilities.
Wilson, for what it’s worth, had 40 catches for 432 yards and 5 touchdowns as a freshman in 2019. All of those totals ranked 4th on the team.
Breaking into the top 3 is a lot to ask of Burton, but becoming a 4th or 5th option who steps in when there’s an injury may not be.
Kyion Grayes
Grayes is a bit of a wild card. He doesn’t come in with gaudy high school stats, having missed the first half of his senior season due to injury.
According to 247 Sports, the 4-star prospect was the 14th-ranked receiver in the 2022 signing class and the No. 2 overall player in Arizona.
It seems probable that Grayes is a year away from becoming an impact player. But like Egbuka a year ago, he is one of the more intriguing names to look for in the spring game.
Alex Hickey is an award-winning writer who has watched Big Ten sports since it was a numerically accurate description of league membership. Alex has covered college football and basketball since 2008, with stops on the McNeese State, LSU and West Virginia beats before being hired as Saturday Tradition's Big Ten columnist in 2021. He is an Illinois native and 2004 Indiana University graduate.