One of the biggest areas of emphasis for Ohio State’s wide receiver room entering the 2026 season has been improving its efforts after the ball is in their hands.
Following a 2025 season in which Ohio State’s passing offense was solid overall and ranked 21st nationally, but the wide receiver unit struggled to generate yards after the catch, senior Brandon Inniss and junior Jeremiah Smith are spearheading a room-wide effort to improve in that area.
Inniss said the Buckeyes have focused on being more decisive with the ball in their hands, emphasizing getting north and south quickly rather than dancing behind the line of scrimmage.
“It’s what we’re doing individually when we get the ball in your hands, getting north and south as fast as we can, one cut and go, making guys miss, running through contact, stuff like that,” Inniss said.
The emphasis on yards after catch (YAC) and yards after contact has been a focus of new wide receivers coach Cortez Hankton. Inniss said the relentless repetition under the former LSU wide receivers coach appears to be paying off early in preseason camp.
“Coach Hank tells us every day. He told us yesterday. He was like, ‘Bro, the transition after the catch from the spring to now has been off the charts,’ and that’s everybody,” Inniss said. “I had a good one out there today that he’ll probably show. I hope he’ll show in the film later. But yeah, it’s good seeing the hard work being put on the field.”
The offseason push follows a candid assessment from Smith, the Buckeyes’ star wideout, who acknowledged that the receiver corps failed to reach its potential in secondary yards over the summer.
During an appearance on the Cover 3 Podcast on July 29, Smith was rather blunt when reflecting on his and the Buckeyes’ production after the catch in 2025.
“YAC, that’s the biggest thing,” Smith said. “I think I was, people say, the worst in the country at that. And as a group, our receiver group was the worst in the country at YAC.”
The metrics back up Smith’s concern, though not quite to the degree he described.
Ohio State finished No. 42 nationally in total yards after catch, and its 5.19 yards after catch per reception ranked 15th-worst in the Power Four.
While Smith led the Buckeyes with 378 total yards after catch last season, he was just 50th nationally, despite ranking fourth in total receiving yards.
Though failure to generate yards after the catch isn’t a new issue for Ryan Day. In just one of his seven seasons as Ohio State’s head coach, Ohio State ranked in the top 25 nationally in YAC. That came in 2021, when Jaxon Smith-Njigba totaled 790 yards after the catch, and the Buckeyes finished 12th nationally.
To fix the issue, Hankton and Ohio State’s coaching staff implemented specific daily drills designed to simulate contact and force quick, decisive moves upfield immediately after securing the football.
“We’ve just been drilling that every single day, yards after contact, yards after catch, things like that, to be more explosive,” Innis said. So I feel like that’s the same. The same message we’ve been getting since spring is the same message we’re getting now.”
