Jaxon Smith-Njigba ( ; born February 14, 2002) is an American football wide receiver for the

Ohio State Buckeyes The Ohio State Buckeyes are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Ohio State University, located in Columbus, Ohio. The athletic programs are named after the colloquial term for people from the state of Ohio and after the state tre ...

. He holds the FBS Bowl Game and Ohio State single game record for most receiving yards with 347 in the

2022 Rose Bowl The 2022 Rose Bowl was a college football bowl game played on January 1, 2022, with kickoff at 5:13 p.m. EST (2:13 p.m. local PST) and televised on ESPN. It was the 108th edition of the Rose Bowl Game, and was one of the 2021–22 bowl games co ...

. Smith also holds Ohio State records for most catches in a single game with 15 (twice) and most receiving yards in a single season with 1,606 during the 2021 season.

Early life and high school career

Smith-Njigba grew up in

Rockwall, Texas Rockwall is a city in Rockwall County, Texas, United States, which is part of the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex. It is the county seat of Rockwall County. The U.S. Census Bureau estimate's As of the 2020 census, Rockwall's population is 47,251. T ...

, and attended

Rockwall High School Rockwall High School is a high school that is part of the Rockwall Independent School District located in Rockwall, Texas. The average class size is around 600 and the school achieves an average graduation rate of 98%. Athletics The high scho ...

. Smith-Njigba led all high school football players in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex with 97 receptions for 1,828 yards and 20

touchdown A touchdown (abbreviated as TD) is a scoring play in gridiron football. Whether running, passing, returning a kickoff or punt, or recovering a turnover, a team scores a touchdown by advancing the ball into the opponent's end zone. In Amer ...

s in his junior season. As a senior, he caught 104 passes for 2,094 yards and 35 touchdowns and was named the recipient of both the Landry Award and the Texas Gatorade Football Player of the Year award. Smith-Njigba played in the 2019

All-American Bowl The All-American Bowl was an annual postseason college football bowl game played at Legion Field in Birmingham, Alabama from 1977 to 1990. The game was known as the Hall of Fame Classic from 1977 to 1985. In 1986, the National Football Foundatio ...

and was named a high school All-American by ''

Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellence twi ...

'' and ''

USA Today ''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virgi ...

''. Smith-Njigba finished his high school career with 5,346 career receiving yards and 82 touchdowns in 44 games played. A 5 star prospect and the #5 ranked wide receiver in the nation, Smith-Njigba received offers from many top college football programs including Notre Dame,

Nebraska Nebraska () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Kansas to the south; Colorado to the sout ...

and Ole Miss. Ultimately, however, he committed to

Ohio State University The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best publ ...

College career

Smith-Njigba played in seven games as a freshman and led Ohio State's freshmen with 10 receptions for 49 yards and one touchdown. He was named a starter at the slot receiver position for the Buckeyes going into his sophomore season. On November 6, 2021, Smith-Njigba recorded 15 receptions (single game school record) for 240 yards (the second most receiving yards in a game in school history at the time) and one touchdown in a 26–17 win against

. Later that season, he set both an Ohio State single game and FBS Bowl record for receiving yards with 347 in Ohio State's win in the

. In that game, he also recorded 15 receptions (tying his own record set in the aforementioned Nebraska game) and passed

David Boston David Byron Boston (born August 19, 1978) is an American former Professional football (gridiron), professional football player who was a wide receiver in the National Football League (NFL). He was selected by the Arizona Cardinals eighth overall ...

for the single season receiving yards record at Ohio State with 1,606. Smith-Njigba was limited to just three games in 2022 due to a hamstring injury and his decision to not participate in the College Playoff.

Statistics

Personal life

Smith-Njigba is of half

Sierra Leone Sierra Leone,)]. officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered by Liberia to the southeast and Guinea surrounds the northern half of the nation. Covering a total area of , Sierr ...

an descent. Smith-Njigba's older brother,

Canaan Smith-Njigba Canaan Elijah Smith-Njigba (born April 30, 1999) is an American professional baseball outfielder for the Pittsburgh Pirates of Major League Baseball (MLB). He made his MLB debut in 2022. Amateur career Smith-Njigba attended Rockwall-Heath High ...

, plays for the Pittsburgh Pirates of

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

(MLB).

References

External links

Ohio State Buckeyes bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith-Njigba, Jaxon 2002 births Living people People from Rockwall, Texas Players of American football from Texas American football wide receivers Ohio State Buckeyes football players American people of Sierra Leonean descent Sportspeople of Sierra Leonean descent