Jack Sawyer

Jack Sawyer grew up about 20 miles from Ohio Stadium.

He was a five-star recruit, Buckeyes fan, and Pickerington kid.

He probably imagined making the big play for the Buckeyes thousands of times before he ever actually wore the uniform.

Then, on Jan. 10, 2025, imagination and reality met and created a legacy.

Ohio State was playing Texas in the College Football Playoff semifinal at the Cotton Bowl. The Buckeyes led 21-14, but Texas was knocking on the door late in the fourth quarter.

Actually, knocking doesn't adequately describe it. The Longhorns were standing on the porch.

First-and-goal from the Ohio State 1.

A touchdown and extra point would tie the game.

Ohio State stuffed the first run. On second down, Lathan Ransom dropped the Texas running back for a seven-yard loss. An incomplete pass followed, which was hurried by Sawyer.

Fourth-and-goal from the 8, which Texas had to go for. A field goal that late in the game did nothing.

Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers took the snap, and Sawyer came around the right edge.

He hit Ewers from behind and knocked the football loose.

But he didn’t stop with the pass breakup. He saw the ball bounce, picked it up, and ran the other way for an 83-yard game-clinching, national championship game sealing touchdown.

It was instantly one of the greatest moments in the 137-year history of the Buckeyes.

Ohio State 28, Texas 14.

Notre Dame became the final hurdle toward a national championship.

And because sports sometimes have a strange sense of humor, the quarterback Sawyer stripped was his former Ohio State roommate. Ewers had begun his college career with the Buckeyes before transferring to Texas.

Sawyer finished the game with three tackles, a sack, two pass breakups, a forced fumble and the most memorable 83 yards of his life. He was named the Cotton Bowl's Defensive MVP.

But the play meant even more because of what had happened six weeks earlier.

Sawyer and several other veteran Buckeyes had returned for another season because they believed they had unfinished business. Then Connor Stalions University came into Ohio Stadium and beat Ohio State 13-10 again.

It was the fourth consecutive loss to their hated, sign-stealing rivals.

Sawyer had even intercepted a pass near the goal line that afternoon, but Ohio State (Read the Failure is a Courageous Man’s Lesson article on Scarletude) couldn’t turn it into points. Afterward came the ugly midfield confrontation when CSU players attempted to plant their team’s flag.

The season could have died right there, but it didn’t.

Several weeks later, Ohio State steamrolled Tennessee and Oregon before Sawyer ended the Longhorns’ season. Then they discarded Notre Dame to win it all.

There are hundreds of great plays in Ohio State history.

Ezekiel Elliott’s “85 yards through the heart of the South.” Anthony Gonzalez with “The Catch” in 2005. Maurice Clarett’s pivotal steal of a Miami interception in the 2002 National Championship Game, and “Holy Buckeye” immediately come to mind.

But few fit the player quite like this one…the hometown kid who returned for his senior season in 2024 as a captain instead of jumping to the NFL. The lifetime Buckeye who endured one of the most painful losses of his career…angrily intervening when CSU players attempted to plant a flag at midfield in The ‘Shoe…and later inspiring his team to live up to its potential.

Then, like a scene directed by God, Texas needed eight yards and Jack Sawyer sprinted 83 into Buckeye lore.