Jeremiah Smith is one of seven captains this season, an honor he didn’t expect to receive. (Press Pros Feature Photos)
Some have always been leaders, others have been reluctant. But they all had one thing in common: They day they joined the legacy of being Ohio State captains they got the honor they hoped for.
Columbus, OH – Jeremiah Smith cried.
Not a lot. But enough for Brandon Inniss to see it in the strong, silent face of the team.
“At the end of practice Saturday, I was taking a knee next to him, and I have a pretty good feeling he’s going to get to be a captain,” Inniss said. “And when he got called up, I just seen tears of joy.”
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Smith expected certain others to be voted captains. Not himself.
“It caught me by surprise,” he said. “That’s why I dropped a little tear.”
Veteran columnist Jeff Gilbert writes the OHSAA and Ohio State sports for Press Pros Magazine.com. Follow on X @jw_gilbert
Inniss and Smith knew each other well growing up in South Florida. Now they are wide receivers and captains together at Ohio State. But they have opposite personalities. Inniss is a vocal leader by nature. Smith leads by example. But that’s changing.
“It’s great to see that he’s come out of his shell a lot,” Inniss said. “Being a leader for this team, everybody knows they’re going to listen to him just because of what he does on the field. The fact that he could use his voice off the field and when we’re in practice, in the weight room, that was big for him. I knew he wanted to be a captain before he left here, and that’s why tears of joy came.”
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Every coach covets a player-led team.
Those teams, like Ohio State’s 2024 national champions, play harder for each other, hold each other accountable for things the coaches don’t see, and have the best chance to meet or exceed all the expectations others put on them.
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Those teams, of course, must have the requisite talent. This team does. And they go around calling each other “dogs.” If you’re not from Gen Z, that’s complimentary football speak for good players.
This year’s Ohio State team is loaded with dogs. That’s why they face high external expectations of being the nation’s preseason No. 1 in all the polls. Accurate or not, that’s the reality and plenty to bark about.
Jack Sawyer was one of four 2024 captains the 2026 group hopes to emulate all the way to a national title.
Say ignore the noise all you want, Ryan Day, but noise is noise and being No. 1 is a thing a team, even if it’s full of dogs, must navigate without wrecking the ship.
How well the captains help the team keep the main thing the main thing will have a lot to say about whether the Buckeyes leave Las Vegas in January with the winnings they want.
The 2024 Buckeyes were dogged by expectations. They opened at No. 2 and were considered a threat to win it all until they lost to Michigan. But they had captains – Cody Simon, Emeka Egbuka, TreVeyon Henderson, Jack Sawyer and, unofficially, Will Howard – to pilot their ship through rough waters and reach safe harbor in Atlanta for the title game tried and tested but not beaten.
Those dogs rose up and won it all.
The 2026 Buckeyes have big dogs, too. So many of them, including 51 new to the program, that seven captains were elected to lead this year’s team toward claiming a second on-the-field title in three years and an undisputed best-program-in-the-nation title off the field.
The captains – best-player-in-the-nation Jeremiah Smith, quarterback Julian Sayin, wide receiver Brandon Inniss, offensive guard Austin Siereveld, linebacker Payton Pierce, defensive end Kenyatta Jackson, safety Jaylen McClain – are the lead dogs.
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“It’s very cool to have seven guys up there and it shows how much leadership we do have on this team,” Sayin said. “We all love being a part of that group.”
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THE lead dog is Inniss. He will wear the Block O jersey, symbolic of elite leadership, toughness, accountability and character. Inniss is a great choice. He was a leader last year. His toughness, accountability and character come through in how he’s handled a situation many players transfer out of.
Being a captain is nothing new to Brandon Inniss. He also gets to wear the Block O jersey this season.
Inniss finally earned a starting spot last year as a junior after catching 15 passes his first two seasons. Still, he was third choice among the receivers with 35 catches for 271 yards.
“It’s a great honor to have this number,” Inniss said. “I just feel like everything’s lining up how I wanted it. Early on in my career things haven’t gone how I wanted it. But now I’ve seen steady progress.”
The closer the day came to the Block O announcement, the more Inniss wondered if he wanted to give up wearing No. 1. He’s worn the number a lot in his football career.
“I just kept hearing a voice in the back of my head, and it was Coach Day saying, ‘We have core values on our team, and one of them is unselfishness,’” Inniss said. “To be unselfish, to give the number away that means so much to me is just something that I wanted to do, not only for me, but for Buckeye Nation and for my teammates.”
Being a captain and a leader is second nature for Inniss. He was always the best or one of the best players on his team growing up and served as a captain many times. He wanted to be a captain at Ohio State more than anywhere else because of the legacy he joins.
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“When your best guys can lead and do the hard work, you’re going to have a really good team,” he said. “One of my little league coaches told me that. So that carried through my high school career into college.”
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Kenyatta Jackson let his play do the talking last year. But he knew as a senior, and one of three returning defensive starters, he needed to be different.
Kenyatta Jackson new he needed to act like a leader, and now he’s a captain.
“I had to change my personality,” he said. “One morning, I just had to look myself in the mirror and be like, ‘You gotta do it,’ And I did it. And those guys, they made me a captain.”
The change was obvious. Jackson began talking to more people on the team, and not just on the defense. He talks more to Julian Sayin, Austin Siereveld, Luke Montgomery and Carson Hinzman on offense. He talks to special teamers. He talks to the 51 new guys on the team.
“Everybody needs that from me,” he said. “I always knew I had to do it. I was just probably scared to do it.”
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Julian Sayin won the starting quarterback job last year in his second season as a Buckeye. Quarterbacks lead by default. But most quarterbacks don’t find their lead-dog voice until season No. 2.
Julian Sayin has found his leadership as the Ohio State quarterback.
His teammates see a more confident leader. Mickey Marotti, the man who builds strength and leadership in the weight room, challenged Sayin in the offseason to be the voice his team needs.
“He’s doing a great job using his voice more, taking command of the offense,” Jeremiah Smith said. “When he’s in the locker room, in the huddle, like God’s talking. He’s telling everybody to shut up and saying all type of stuff. You see that swagger coming out of him, a lot of different things. But I’m happy for Julian. He’s taking that step for sure.”
Sayin supports and trusts his offensive line, but they aren’t immune to their quarterback’s new ways.
“Sometimes he’s a little too confident,” senior guard Austin Siereveld said. “He gets on our butt sometimes. After some plays, we’re trying to get coached up by Coach [Tyler] Bowen. And he always has the next play, and we try to roll. He’s awesome. He’s a great leader, great quarterback. The sky’s the limit for him.”
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Austin Siereveld takes leadership seriously. He’s a captain for the second time. He understands that great leaders serve.
Austin Siereveld is a two-time Ohio State captain.
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Last year he moved from guard to left tackle. This year he’s moving back to right guard because of the emergence of Ian Moore.
Siereveld’s attitude is do what the team needs, no questions asked. The coaches, he said, didn’t even ask him about the move to guard.
“It don’t matter,” he said. “Whatever they want.”
Siereveld’s teammates saw his unselfishness and voted for him again.
“It means a lot,” he said. “Especially being from Ohio, it means even more. Shout out to all the guys out there for trusting me and voting me captain. It’s all them.”
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Much is obviously expected from safety Jaylen McClain. He is one of three returning starters on defense and was chosen to represent that unit at Big Ten Media Days.
Jaylen McClain returns as a starting safety ready to lead the secondary.
One of the goals he wrote down for this season was to be a captain.
“It’s an honor, it’s a blessing to be recognized as a captain by my peers and by the staff,” he said. “I don’t take that lightly.”
McClain said he worked on growing as a leader this offseason. He understands the role of a captain. His definition is short and focused.
“Basically just upholding the standard,” he said, “and bringing people along with you.”
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Every defense needs an emotional leader. And middle linebacker is a perfect place for that leader to be, in the middle of the action, able to address all three levels.
Payton Pierce is the new middle linebacker, and after the first fall scrimmage he emotionally addressed the entire defense.
“That day wasn’t our standard, and so I just felt like I needed to say something to the group that it wasn’t our standard,” Pierce said.
Linebacker Payton Pierce isn’t afraid to be an emotional leader. He’s a first-year starter and is the voice in the middle every defense needs.
“We had a really good second scrimmage. The guys bounced back and we had a really good second week.”
Pierce wanted to be a captain and follow in the footsteps of former teammates Cody Simon and Sonny Styles. He credits his family for instilling in him the importance of leadership. He got the most votes of all the captains.
“It was relieving hearing my name being called, and it just means a ton to me,” Pierce said. “It means more than a lot of things because being voted by your peers to lead them is a huge honor.”
Seven captains. Day never has a set number. But with 51 new players, he was happy that the voting was close enough to choose seven. Not only are they leading the rest of the team, they are leading each other.
“All the other leaders on our team have been leading me, holding each other accountable,” Pierce said. “It’s been great having everyone do that.”
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