Latest Carnell Tate stat proves Ohio State receiver is ready for NFL

When the balls thrown the way of Carnell Tate, he's going to come down with it.

The junior wideout for the Ohio State Buckeyes has had himself an incredible 2025 season. With a team-high 711 yards and seven touchdowns through eight games, Tate has separated himself from nearly every other wide receiver in the nation.

Just a few weeks ago, against the Penn State Nittany Lions, Tate was targeted heavily by sophomore signal-caller Julian Sayin. He tossed the rock deep to Tate a number of times, hauling in five catches for 124 yards and one score, an average of 24.8 yards a reception.

He now has four games with over 100 receiving yards.

However, even with those incredible marks, one statline stands out as the most incredible.

Tate has been thrown 13 contested balls, hauling in 12 of them, which is good enough for a 92.3% catch rate. Nobody with more than five contested targets this season at the collegiate level has a higher rate than the 6-foot-3, 195-pound wide receiver.

Carnell Tate has had 13 contested catch opportunities this season. He’s caught TWELVE of them (92.3%). Nobody with more than 5 contested targets has a higher rate than Tate.

He also has a 3.52 Y/RR, which is the 3rd-highest in the country. pic.twitter.com/20vQZtO2uZ
— The Dawgs - A Cleveland Browns Podcast (@thedawgspodcast) November 13, 2025

With many eyes pointed to the sophomore phenom, Jeremiah Smith, Tate is carving out his own path to stardom.

To be able to bring down that many balls is an incredible feat.

And he's doing it against anyone marked up against him.

Against the University of Minnesota, he caught nine balls for a season-high 183 yards and one touchdown, good enough for 20.3 yards per reception. Outside of the games against Minnesota and Penn State, his two other 100-yard outings came against the Wisconsin Badgers with 111 yards and two touchdowns, and Ohio, where he brought down five catches for 101 yards and one score.

Prior to this year, his best season came last campaign. That year he caught 52 passes for 733 yards and four touchdowns.

Well, with three more regular-season games to go, and potential postseason play, Tate has a chance to surpass his college-best marks from a year ago. He already has more than the previous number of most touchdowns he has grabbed in a season.

As the 2026 NFL Draft approaches in the coming months, he is turning heads nationally.

Miller Reid, an NFL Draft anaylst for ESPN, thinks Tate is one of the most interesting offensive prospects.

"Tate is the next first-round receiver from Columbus, and each week he builds a case for a higher grade," he wrote. "In comparing Tate to the line of OSU receivers before him, his actual grade will be closer to Emeka Egbuka or Jaxon Smith-Njigba than players like Marvin Harrison Jr., Garrett Wilson or even Chris Olave coming out of college. Both Egbuka (No. 19 overall) and Smith-Njigba (No. 20) were selected in the back-half of Round 1, and right now that's where the 6-foot-3, 195-pound Tate is projected to land.

"His tape is full of physicality and an ability to win 50-50 balls."

Tate and the Buckeyes will have their next chance at action on Saturday, Nov. 15, with kickoff slated for 7:30 p.m. from The Shoe.

That's IF Tate laces up his cleats. Last Saturday, against the Purdue Boilermakers, he didn't play after being a last-minute scratch.

"[Tate] wanted to play," Day said, "but we've got a lot of football ahead us."

So far, his availability for the outing against UCLA is up in the air.