One of the five largest American cities by population without an NFL football team, the Buckeyes suck up all the attention that an NFL franchise could otherwise have and then some. Some consider it the nation’s largest college town, really the only comparable huge city-college team relationship out there is that between Austin and Texas.

Jack Sawyer knows the Ohio State football craze in Columbus firsthand. Not only was he born and raised in it, playing his high school ball at Pickerington North, but he also participated in it heavily growing up.

“For me, I love it,” Sawyer said. “I love that Columbus takes Ohio State football so seriously because it’s what I grew up doing. I grew up going to school, third and fourth grade, and that’s all we talked about was Ohio State football. What happened the previous weekend, or we can’t believe that this or this didn’t happen, you know what I mean? So it’s just kind of what I grew up doing.”

That’s why Sawyer’s taken the Buckeyes’ past three results against Michigan especially hard, and it’s why – whether recruiting other teammates to come back or improving his own craft – he’s doing everything in his power to correct the corrupted course of the last several seasons.

“When I committed to Ohio State, we had just played in a national championship,” Sawyer said. “Coming off of three or four Big Ten championship wins, haven’t lost to ‘The Team Up North’ in eight, nine years. And then when my class gets there, it kind of reverses. And I think for me, being the type of guy I am, I think naturally I felt like we let, I let not only Ryan Day down, but I let the city down.

“So for me, it’s all about coming back. And a lot of us, we all feel the same way, too, is that we can’t, we weren’t gonna leave here without having one more shot at doing this the right way and leaving here better than what we came here for.”

Sawyer may feel like he let his city down, but his play in the second half of last season provides evidence for the opposite.

A five-star prospect in the 2021 recruiting class, Sawyer finally hit his stride down the stretch of his junior campaign. He got rolling with a six-tackle night at Wisconsin on Oct. 28, a menace against the Badgers’ ground game and matched that output twice more in the final five contests of 2023. 

His breakout performance in the eyes of the public came on Nov. 18 against Minnesota, when he piled up six takedowns with 3.5 tackles for loss, a sack and a forced fumble recovered by JT Tuimoloau and returned to the Gophers’ 7-yard line. Sawyer dropped six more tackles and a sack in the latest loss at Michigan then got home for three more sacks in the Cotton Bowl.

“For me, I feel like I played my best football the last six games of last season, and everyone always asks me why,” Sawyer said. “I feel like it kind of took a little bit for me to start clicking on all cylinders. But really, I just think that everyone develops at a different rate. And some people just aren’t ready to make the plays or maybe it just wasn’t their time yet.

“For me, I just kept my faith in God and kept working, didn’t get discouraged because I knew what I was capable of. And eventually, I started playing the best football I possibly could. So I’m excited for this season.”

Sawyer added that in-game experience helped to grow his confidence, and he eventually realized he was capable of playing good college football “against anybody.” After that, he said he simply “let it fly.”

Though the Ohio State fanbase at large didn’t find out Sawyer would return for his senior season until some time afterward, the defensive end told his coaches that he’d be back in Columbus before the Cotton Bowl was even played. Then he set to work doing what he’d done as Ryan Day’s first high school football commit – recruiting teammates to join him.

“A lot of people lead different ways. Jack leads by his actions,” Day said. “It started off by being one of the first guys to commit to me as a head coach in the class (of 2021) and then recruiting that class, but also decided to come back this year. He was one of the first, sat down with he and his dad, Lyle, and (they) said, ‘We have unfinished business here.’ And they started to get the guys to come back and build that group together that wanted to leave a legacy behind.”

In all, 12 players returned to Ohio State who had NFL draft stock and the ability to go pro, including seven of Sawyer’s classmates who signed with the Buckeyes in 2021. Each man had his own decision to make, but each knew that Jack desperately wanted them back.

“I was throwing stuff in guys’ ears, trying to talk to them about coming back and why we should come back and how much it would mean to the city if we came back and to Ohio State and being able to etch our names and a legacy here if we won a national championship and beat those guys up north,” Sawyer said. “So it was kind of a collective group effort, and a lot of decision went into it. But everybody made their own decision, what was best for them. And ultimately, I’m glad that a lot of them decided to come back.”

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As Day alluded to and later directly said in his breakout session, unfinished business is the top motivating factor across the board for Ohio State’s returning veterans. But it’s especially true in Sawyer’s case.

“I wake up and think about it every day. I haven’t won a championship, I haven’t beat ‘The Team Up North,’” Sawyer said. “You walk around the Woody and all you see is championships and championship posters and banners. I’ve been here for three years and not helped our team and this organization win any of those. It’s something that wears on me and it’s something that motivates me every day.”

“I wake up and think about it every day. I haven’t won a championship, I haven’t beat the Team Up North.”– Jack Sawyer

The next step for Sawyer is ensuring he maintains that production from the second half of last year. He’ll have most of his defensive line running mates back alongside him including Tuimoloau and defensive tackles Tyleik Williams and Ty Hamilton.

“I’m just focused on becoming the best player I possibly can be week in and week out, working on every part of my game from the pass rush to the run-stopping,” Sawyer said.

All of Ohio State’s players are starved for a rivalry win in 2024. But for the Columbus kid at defensive end, it’s more than a hunger, it’s a need. And he’s certainly left no stone unturned in trying to make a win over Michigan happen.

“It’d mean everything. It’d mean everything to me,” Sawyer said of what his first pair of gold pants would mean. “That’s the main reason why we came back. That’s when we signed our names on our letters of intent. That’s what we were coming here to do. Especially me being from Columbus, that’d mean the world to me. And that’s what I plan on doing this fall.”