CHICAGO — Ohio State wide receiver Jeremiah Smith downplays his chances of winning a Heisman Trophy even though he’s generally regarded as college football’s top returning player regardless of position.

“I always felt that was a quarterback award unless you have a crazy season like DeVonta Smith did, where you have 1,800 yards and 20 touchdowns,” said Smith, referencing the former Alabama receiver who caught 117 passes for 1,856 yards and 23 touchdowns in 2020. “I don’t really know the criteria, what they look at. Is it the best stats? Is it the best player? I don’t really know.”

Smith is more concerned with helping Ohio State win a second national title in three years, which just might enable Buckeyes quarterback Julian Sayin to make his own Heisman run. If Ohio State falls short, perhaps it will be because Oregon quarterback Dante Moore leads the Ducks to their first title.

Ohio State and Oregon enter this season as the Big Ten favorites even in a conference that includes defending national champion Indiana. Although the Big Ten doesn’t release its own preseason predicted order of finish during its media days event this week, Cleveland.com puts together its own media poll each year and has Ohio State first, Oregon second and Indiana third.

Both teams are eager to put recent playoff disappointments behind them.

Oregon has lost rematches with the eventual national champion in the playoffs each of the last two years. The Ducks beat Ohio State in the 2024 regular season and earned the No. 1 playoff seed that year before losing to the Buckeyes 41-21 in a Rose Bowl quarterfinal. The Ducks fell 56-22 to Indiana in a Peach Bowl semifinal last year after falling 30-20 to the Hoosiers during the regular season.

“We never want to feel that feeling again, of coming up short in a game,” Oregon tight end Jamari Johnson said. “This whole offseason we’ve been preaching it. We hate that feeling.”

Buckeyes face tougher schedule this year

Ohio State, the 2024 national champion, was ranked first last year before finishing the season with consecutive losses to Indiana in the Big Ten championship game and Miami in a Cotton Bowl quarterfinal. Smith believes the Buckeyes’ soft regular-season schedule contributed to their playoff demise because they weren’t battle tested.

That won’t be a problem this year.

Ohio State’s schedule starts with a trip to Texas and includes a three-game midseason stretch in which the Buckeyes visit defending national champion Indiana and Southern California before hosting Oregon. There’s also the annual rivalry game with Michigan.

“We’re definitely going to be battle tested,” Smith said, “and that’s going to show at the end of the season.”

The Buckeyes lost 11 players to the NFL draft, more than any other school. That included four of the first 11 overall selections in wide receiver Carnell Tate, linebackers Arvell Reese and Sonny Styles and safety Caleb Downs. Ohio State also lost offensive coordinator Brian Hartline, now the head coach at South Florida.

But the Buckeyes have Sayin back at quarterback after he threw for 3,610 yards and 32 touchdowns. They also have Smith, whose 2,558 career yards receiving and 27 touchdown catches are the most by any Big Ten receiver in their first two years of college and the most by any Bowl Subdivision player over the last two seasons.

That production had plenty of teams wanting Smith to enter the transfer portal.

“There were different types of programs coming at me once Hartline left and the season was over,” Smith said. “I never really thought about leaving Ohio State. I always wanted to be at Ohio State. It would be dumb for me to leave Ohio State and to go to another team when I have the best offensive line in the country, the best quarterback in the country and best coaches in the country.”

Oregon might argue it has the best quarterback in the country.

Ducks benefit from Moore's return

Moore could have been drafted in the first round this year if he had turned pro after throwing for 3,565 yards and 30 touchdowns last season. He opted to come back to school instead.

“I think it speaks to his maturity, what he wanted to accomplish,” Oregon coach Dan Lanning said.

Moore’s return has the Ducks thinking big, even though Lanning lost two of his top assistants from last season with offensive coordinator Will Stein becoming Kentucky’s head coach and defensive coordinator Tosh Lupoi taking over at California.

The impact Moore’s decision had on Oregon’s title hopes was evident from Lanning’s reaction to the news.

“He had no clue (beforehand), actually,” Moore said. “I didn’t tell anybody. My agent and my dad were the only people who knew, I announced it, and then Coach Lanning came pushing through the door, jumped on top of the desk and started screaming.”

Oregon hopes the celebration continues deep into January.