Jack Sawyer stayed. This is why.

Night, Day and how Ohio State football came back from its Michigan debacle.

Forty-one days after the low point of his Ohio State career, an ignominious defeat to an archrival that left him so distraught that he momentarily turned into a vandal in scarlet and gray, Jack Sawyer was in a very different place on Friday night. He stood in his red No. 33 jersey, amid the confetti and the mayhem in the Cotton Bowl, holding up one end of the unofficial flag of his school’s football program, and of an entire state’s overactive imagination, the one declaring that it is “Ohio Against the World.”

It's a silly slogan, really, the creation of a clever marketer looking to sell hoodies and tee-shirts. The world is no more against Ohio than the Ohio State Buckeyes are an underdog in the big-beef orbit of college football. But hey, if the grievance thing works for you, run with it. The marketing guy has and so has Ryan Day’s football team, which outlasted Texas, 28-14, in the semifinals of the College Football Playoff, earning a chance to win its sixth national championship against Notre Dame on January 20 in Atlanta.

“I just love stories of guys who go through difficult times, stay loyal, defend the people they love the most and then come out at the back end,” Day said in the postgame press conference. “I just love that in life.”

Day was talking about his entire locker room, but his words were meant especially for Sawyer, a 6-foot-5, 260-pound defensive end who looks like an oversized Opie and has the earnestness, and faith, of an altar boy. Sawyer grew up in a Columbus suburb, a half-hour from Ohio Stadium, wearing a Buckeye jersey and playing football in the yard with his father. There wasn’t much doubt where he wanted to play college ball.

“I love Columbus. I love the state of Ohio. I love Ohio State football,” Sawyer said.

One of the premier edge rushers in the country, Sawyer could’ve left OSU for the NFL last spring, but the thought of departing without winning a national championship, or beating Michigan, seemed fundamentally wrong. So he stayed for his senior year. The season got off to a strong start and despite a one-point loss to Oregon in October, the Buckeyes were 10-1 and three-touchdown favorites when they hosted a wobbling Michigan team on Nov. 3. Michigan had already lost four games in the conference and showed little chance of being competitive with Ohio State, despite beating the Buckeyes three years running.

But things did not unfold as planned. The Michigan defense held Ohio State scoreless in the second half and to season-low totals for points (10) and yards (252), and the Wolverines pounded OSU with its running game, and they were on the verge of taking the lead when Sawyer intercepted a Davis Warren pass on the goal line. It was one of the biggest plays of Sawyer’s career and seemed likely to spare 106,000 people in The Shoe from any further emotional duress, except that the Buckeyes did nothing with the possession and Michigan won on a late field goal.

Then the real drama started, Michigan players attempting to commemorate the upset by planting a flag with a big blue “M” in the center of the field. Sawyer saw what they were up to and was not about to allow a football holy ground be desecrated in such a fashion, so he caught up to the flag carrier and ripped the big blue M off the pole. Fights began to break out all over the field, so bad that police had to use pepper spray to restore order.

It was painful enough the way OSU had lost to Michigan in 2023, when Michigan was ranked No. 1 and Ohio State was No. 2 and the Wolverines won 30-24, going on to crush Washington to win the national championship. This felt even worse. OSU was at home, an apparent lock to play for the Big 10 championship. With everything at stake, the Buckeyes played with scant commitment or belief, and then came the inevitable flogging of Ryan Day, in print and on podcasts and social media and everywhere else people talk about OSU in Ohio, which is from Ashtabula to Cincinnati and all points in between. Sure, he had a record of 65-6 against opponents not from Ann Arbor, but you can’t lose four years running to Michigan and not expect to get heat.

If this had been 2024, Ohio State would’ve absolutely been out of the four-team playoff. But with the expanded 12-team CFP format, the Buckeyes made the tournament as the No. 8 seed. December turned to January and Ohio State turned into an entirely different team. It crushed Tennessee, 42-17, in the first round of the playoffs, and then demolished No. 1 Oregon, going up 34-0 before halftime en route to a 41-21 victory. Into the semis they went in the Cotton Bowl, the same place the season before ended with a dispiriting loss to Missouri. Texas played with heart and skill and was a yard away from tying the game at 21 in the waning minutes, when Sawyer beat his man and chased after Quinn Ewers, the Texas quarterback. Ewers started his career at Ohio State. Sawyer was his roommate. Ewers transferred back to his home state and they remained good friends, and now here came an impromptu reunion, Ewers dropping left to find a receiver in the end zone, his former roommate ramming into him, forcing a fumble. Ewers went down. Sawyer scooped up the ball from the turf and didn’t stop running until he was in the end zone, 83 yards later.

Later, after the trophy celebration and the Ohio-against-the-world flag holding, Sawyer talked about how he ran down Ewers, the same way he ran down the Michigan flag carrier. He spoke of the character the Buckeyes have shown since that day at the end of November, and how it all started with Day.

“He’s the most resilient guy I’ve ever been around and that’s the reason why you see this team fight so hard each and every week,” Sawyer said. “I’m just so thankful to play for this coach and this team.”

College football doesn’t pretend to be an endeavor for amateurs anymore, no matter that the NCAA insists on referring to “the student-athletes” in its press conferences. Ohio State has invested $20 million in NIL loot to build this program. Other big-time schools are doing the same. Former Georgia quarterback Carson Beck decided to pass on the NFL for now and accept a reported $4 million NIL payment to take his talents to Miami. There is plenty to be cynical about, and that makes the story of Jack Sawyer, the hometown kid who wasn’t ready to leave, an endearing one.

“This is somebody who grew up in Columbus, who has always wanted to be a Buckeye, who has always wanted a moment like this,” Day said. “You want to leave a legacy behind? You become a legend. He just became a legend at Ohio State.”