COLUMBUS, Ohio — Jaxon Smith-Njigba did a little bit of everything at Rockwall High School.

The former five-star wide receiver from the east side of Dallas played everything, from quarterback to wide receiver to running back, later developing a level of trust to be that guy in the Ohio State offense.

With the absence of Chris Olave and Garrett Wilson, Smith-Njigba solidified himself as the guy in the Rose Bowl, something Ryan Day and the rest of the coaching staff knew well before the 2021 finale.

Once they saw Smith-Njigba’s ability solidified, Day, wide receivers coach Brian Hartline and the rest of the Ohio State coaching staff went to the drawing board, cultivating different plays and looks where the receiver could shine, whether it was from the outside, in the slot or even in the backfield next to quarterback C.J. Stroud.

“[Day] has a great offensive mind, and we just have great offensive people around us that just try and put me into great situations where I can use my best stuff,” Smith-Njigba said. “My best ability is to, you know, make people miss.”

That’s not an exclusive idea for solely Smith-Njigba.

Versatility is a requirement for every receiver in Ohio State’s room, creating even more depth than the Buckeyes would have had before just because of each player’s plug-and-play ability.

“We all can play everywhere,” wide receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. said, who mentioned that he lined up in the slot for one of his three touchdowns against Utah in the Rose Bowl. “We’re all just like, ‘we’re going to go now,’ or, ‘I’m going to go here’ and we get to move around. Obviously it takes some time knowing the playbook and things like that, but we definitely have fun with it.”

But it’s not just about adding to the Rolodex of skills for wide receivers to put in their back pocket ahead of that jump to the league.

To Julian Fleming, it’s a product of the expectation to understand everything that’s going on for a single offensive play whether the player is in the slot, outside or in the backfield.

It’s about understanding full concepts, something that opens things up further with more players in the loop and understanding what is happening.

“I feel like it makes you unpredictable,” Fleming said. “It gives a little like, I don’t even know what the word is, I guess ‘hiddenness’ to what people are doing. You can’t really predict something. One time somebody’s outside, one time they are inside, one time they’re on the opposite side. So I think it gives you the real sense of ‘They can do anything at any time.’”

After playing the majority of his snaps on the inside for Ohio State as a sophomore in 2020, Wilson moved to the outside, taking 82.9 percent of his snaps out wide, while Smith-Njigba took a hold of the slot position, lining up out wide 46 times all season in 2021.

Heading into 2022, Smith-Njigba is the centerpiece of the Ohio State passing game. To Day, that’s the goal: to find that first receiver he can trust. Ideally, the head coach said, he wants five or six to roll in, similar to when Terry McLaurin, Parris Campbell, K.J. Hill, Austin Mack, Binjimen Victor and Co. all shared the spotlight with Dwayne Haskins in 2018.

“Really what you try and do is you try and find one, you try and find two, you try and find three, you try and find four, and as many guys that deserve to be on the field and get reps will get reps,” Day said. “We typically like to roll those guys if we can, but they have to get out there and earn that.”

Smith-Njigba doesn’t want a limit on what he can do.

He’s never had one before, and the Ohio State coaching staff, the junior receiver said, has done a good job at ensuring that idea continues.

Now with a room buying into the mindset of versatility, the centerpiece of Ohio State's passing game knows that the mentality of doing anything to get open, doing anything to move down the field, doesn’t stop with him.

“If you want to key in on me, you have to deal with other guys,” Smith-Njigba said. “It feels good that I’m not just the [only] threat out there.

“We see the vision. We’re not there yet. We know that our standard is really high, which is a good thing.”