Jeremiah Smith Shares Cryptic Message After Mario Cristobal Loses 3 Miami Transfers to ACC Rivals
Ever since the natty loss, Mario Cristobal has decided to catch losses from left and right. More than 18 players entered the portal within three to four days of the loss, and 10+ are heading to the draft, including the caliber of Ruben Bain Jr., Akheem Mesidor , Carson Beck , and Keionte Scott. To make it even worse, the Miami head honcho lost three ‘next-in-line’ players to their rivals. And somehow, Jeremiah Smith seems oddly optimistic about it all.
On January 26th, PackPower247 took to X to announce the transfer of one of Jeremiah Smith’s childhood friends: “NC State football has landed another commit in Miami transfer wideout Joshisa ‘Jojo’ Trader out of the portal.”
Within minutes of the news being put out, Jeremiah Smith hopped onto IG with a cryptic message that sounded like hope: “
”
Jeremiah Smith and Jojo Trader grew up playing together at Chaminade-Madonna in Florida. They’ve been best buddies since they were 11. He even described him as the ‘best duo to ever come out of South Florida’ and even a ‘little blood brother’ after their senior season of high school. However, fate had other plans. Jojo went to Miami, and Jeremiah to Columbus.
They even shared the stage together during this year’s Cotton Bowl. Smith encouraged Trader to “stay the course” and “keep your head down” in the post-game. Needless to say, Jeremiah has his best interests at heart for Jojo.
While he didn’t say exactly how he felt, his “
” emojis and short posts had everyone wondering if he was hinting that the chances of him and his homie are now impossible. Plus, for one hot minute, some fans expected Jojo to join the Buckeyes. Guess that’s not happening. End of the day, it’s obvious Jeremiah Smith was happy for his childhood best friend.
However, the good news is he’s joining his high school buddy, quarterback CJ Bailey, up in Raleigh. The most probable for this break-up is he didn’t see much field time this season. Just 13 catches for 178 yards and a touchdown. Plus, the wide receiver room’s stacked for next season. Some say it’s way better than their 2025 campaign. Mario Cristobal brought Vandrevius Jacobs of South Carolina.
The former Gamecocks WR had 548 yards and 4 touchdowns. He doubled down later by bringing Cam Vaughn of West Virginia (35 rec for 541 yards and 4 touchdowns). The word is that the Hurricanes are favorites to lock in Cooper Barkate from Duke. Plus, Malachi Toney will be the WR1, regardless. Guys like Joshua Moore and Daylyn Upshaw are going back and forth for the WR2 role.
It’s safe to say Jojo Trader doesn’t have a shot to be WR3 on that roster. So he took a leap of faith and hit the portal to NC State, hoping for greener pastures elsewhere.
However, he isn’t the only one heading to Raleigh.
Joining him is Chance Robinson, who saw limited action in just one game this year, and linebacker Raul Aguirre Jr. Aguirre was a major part of the rotation, playing in all 16 games and racking up a career-best 43 tackles—including five against his new team, NC State, back in November.
With that being said, the biggest question fans’ in their mind for Ryan Day is how Jeremiah Smith is going to work out in their new OC Arthur Smith’s run-heavy offense.
Jeremiah Smith’s role in Arthur Smith’s offense
While fans know Smith loves a “ground and pound” style that focuses heavily on the run, this is actually great news for Jeremiah Smith. In Arthur Smith’s system, the run game is used to suck in the defense, which sets up massive “home run” plays through the air. Jeremiah, who is already a superstar with 2,558 career yards and 27 touchdowns, is the perfect deep threat to punish teams once they commit too many players to stopping the run.
You can expect Jeremiah to be treated like an NFL “alpha” receiver, similar to how Arthur Smith used guys like A.J. Brown in the Eagles team or Julio Jones in the past. Even though the offense might throw the ball fewer times overall, a huge chunk of those passes are going to be forced directly to Jeremiah.
He’s coming off a monster 2025 season where he caught 87 passes for over 1,200 yards. And as the undisputed #1 target next year, his “target share” might actually go up. He’s basically the ultimate weapon that makes the whole run-heavy scheme work.
The most exciting part is how he’ll be used in the red zone and on play-action shots.
Jeremiah is a physical mismatch who can out-muscle any defender. This new offense is designed to put him in one-on-one situations where he can dominate. Even with a more conservative coach, Smith’s definitely going to be the favourite to win Biletnikoff. And even Heisman, hopefully, if everything goes the way Arthur Smith imagined.
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