Makai Lemon beat out Ohio State receiver Jeremiah Smith to win the Biletnikoff Award, college football’s highest honor for a receiver. Smith was widely regarded as the best player in college football as a freshman last season. This year, that changes, and the USC Trojans have a receiver of a higher caliber than the Lemons have in Smith.
There’s reason to believe that Jeremiah Smith will still win the Biletnikov Award this year even though he doesn’t have the results he did last year. As a freshman, Smith had 76 catches, 1,315 yards and 15 touchdowns in 16 games. Smith has 80 catches for 1,086 yards and 11 touchdowns this year. His numbers dropped, but his popularity and standards never changed.
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If you separate the name and popularity, and if you look at what both players do on the field, the answer is that Makai Lemon is the better player and the best receiver in the country. It feels like almost every game, Makai Lemon is the best player on the football field. Lemon had a breakout junior season this year, finishing with 79 catches, 1,156 receiving yards and 11 touchdowns. Makai Lemon is so deserving of the award this season that he should even be the first undrafted receiver in next season’s draft.
When you think of the top receivers in the country and the colleges they play for, the two programs that immediately come to mind are LSU and Ohio State. With USC having a win like this and players like Lemon making it to the NFL, USC will likely enter the college conversation at wide receiver.
USC already has receivers like Amon-Ra St. Brown, who is a top-5 receiver in the NFL, and Drake London, who is arguably a top-10 receiver on Sunday. Michael Pittman Jr. is also another receiver with multiple 1,000-yard receiving seasons in his career, joining young Minnesota receiver Jordan Addison. The Trojans’ success at NFL receiver has been bolstered by Hall of Famers Keyshawn Johnson, Mike Williams, Marquise Lee and Robert Woods, among others. Not so long ago, he was dominating Sundays.
Makai Lemon joins Marqise Lee as the only USC Trojans to win the Biletnikoff Award. After entering the NFL, Lemon’s goals are broader. Drawing comparisons to Trojans legend Amon-Ra St. Brown, Lemon will look to take his game to a whole new level no matter which team drafts him and further prove why the USC Trojans should be a college wide receiver.
This article originally appeared on Trojans Wire: USC football should enter ‘wide receiver college’ conversation