Ohio State star Jeremiah Smith builds the perfect quarterback using Tom Brady’s persona and Patrick Mahomes’ number

Ohio State wide receiver Jeremiah Smith is quickly becoming one of the biggest young stars in college football. He is coming off a stellar freshman season where he had 76 receptions for 1315 yards and 15 TDs while helping the Buckeyes win the national championship.

On Tuesday, Smith’s stardom got even bigger as it was announced that he would be one of the cover athletes for EA Sports College Football 26 alongside Alabama wide receiver Ryan Williams. The two young wide receivers are already two of the biggest stars in the nation despite being early in their careers.

On Tuesday, the “MMG” YouTube channel posted a sponsored EA video from the cover photo shoot. In the video, Smith built his perfect QB in the Road to Glory game mode (Timestamp 2:25).

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“I would go quarterback. You gotta field general,” Smith said. “A little Tom Brady action,” host Matt Meagher responded. “Alright, what number?”

Smith was quick to respond, picking Kansas City Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes’ number.

“15,” Smith said.

Jeremiah Smith then responded to a question about whether he would build a player who is redshirting, going to a powerhouse program, or to a smaller program.

“I say go to a smaller school and build it up,” Smith said. “For sure, you got to. That’s the way.”

Jeremiah Smith expresses his excitement to be a cover athlete for College Football 26

With the announcement that Jeremiah Smith will be one of the cover athletes for College Football 26, he becomes the first Ohio State player to appear on the cover in the history of the franchise. In a statement released after the announcement, Smith expressed his excitement to represent Ohio State.

“I’m proud to represent Ohio State alongside Coach (Ryan) Day while carrying the Buckeye legacy forward, celebrating the passion of our fans and the tradition of this incredible program,” Smith said.

It will be interesting to see how Jeremiah Smith performs next season now that he is more in the spotlight. The performances of the College Football 25 cover athletes were mixed. The game had three cover athletes last year, Colorado’s Travis Hunter, Texas’ Quinn Ewers and Michigan’s Donovan Edwards.

While Hunter lived up to expectations, becoming the second pick in the 2025 NFL draft, Ewers and Edwards did not have great seasons. Ewers struggled with injuries and his performance dropped. As a result, he fell to the seventh round of the draft. Edwards did not even get selected and signed with the New York Jets as an undrafted free agent.

About the author

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Alexander O’Reilly is a journalist at Sportskeeda from Kingston, Ontario with over seven years in the field at companies including SenShot, RVBlogger, Monarch Media, WordAgents, GSeC LLC, and IGC.

His favorite college team is Duke, and his favorite sporting memory was Duke winning March Madness in 2010. JJ Redick was Alex’s favorite college player when he was young but more recently, Caleb Williams gets the nod. As the Chicago Bears are Alex’s favorite NFL team, this was a perfect match.

Alex’s proudest moment came when he was interviewed by a radio station in Ottawa on his opinion on recent moves by the Ottawa Senators, which gave him a confidence boost and the knowledge that he could succeed as a writer.

Aside from sports, Alex likes to spend his time playing games. He is also very passionate about running and strives to improve at the half and full marathon distances.

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