Longtime Ohio State reporter and insider Jeremy Birmingham caused quite a stir over the weekend when he called Ohio State star Jeremiah Smith a “petulant child” after the superstar wide receiver was visibly frustrated during the team’s blowout loss to Oregon. Now, the Columbus radio host is walking back his word choice, but doubling down on his larger point.
After Ohio State’s 41-28 loss to Oregon on Saturday, Birmingham ripped Smith on 97.1 The Fan’s Snap Judgments for his visible frustration and emotion during the loss.
“You cannot be the best player in the country and a captain and all of the things that Jeremiah Smith is and go stomping down the field like a petulant child,” Birmingham said.
While the longtime Ohio State insider admitted that he could have chosen his words better, he made it clear that he still stands by the substance of his criticism.
“It is what it is,” Birmingham said of the criticism that he received on the Austin & Birm show on 97.1 The Fan. “I mean, it’s unfortunate. I know that there’s a lot of negativity swirling around a comment that I made about Jeremiah Smith and how I felt that he responded in a moment when the rest of the team was gathered, and he was not. I probably should have used better terms or been a little bit more in depth in explaining my point, but ultimately, I think it comes down to, my opinion is that if your team captain and your best leader is not leading at the moment that the team needs it, that’s a bad look. And I’m not going to back down from that.”
That said, Birmingham also had plenty of praise for Smith, saying that the star receiver has been “exemplary across the board” in his three years with the program.
“He’s the best player in college football. He is someone who I’ve said is the best player in Ohio State football history,” Birmingham said. “I said two weeks ago, they [should] just give him the Heisman now because it’s going to be unfair what is going to happen statistically to him.”
While he stood by his larger point, he did concede that calling him a “petulant child” crossed the line.
“I should have done a better job of getting my point across and saying it in a more cogent way, as opposed to just saying that he was stomping around like a petulant child. That’s probably the wrong term. It is the wrong term. He’s entitled to being frustrated,” Birmingham said. “As a leader, I just don’t think that’s the productive way to handle it on the field. And I’m not going to apologize for that point because I don’t think that that’s instructive for young guys. I don’t think it helps Luke Fahey.”