ARLINGTON, Texas — A good distance away from the stage the place confetti would quickly flurry, the place Ohio State head coach Ryan Day would hoist the Cotton Bowl trophy and quarterback Will Howard and edge rusher Jack Sawyer could be named MVPs on their respective sides of the ball, a communications consultant for the Buckeyes squeezed a soccer within the criminal of his arm across the 9-yard line. He’d been holding it for fairly a while, since not less than the second when the ultimate buzzer sounded however maybe some time longer, across the 2:13 mark of the fourth quarter, when Sawyer stripped it away from Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers and galloped 83 yards down the sideline for an unforgettable scoop-and-score that propelled his workforce to the nationwide championship recreation. There was an instantaneous between these two snapshots when Sawyer, a revered senior and workforce captain, entrusted the souvenir to Jerry Emig, this system’s longtime sports activities info director, with very particular directions.
“Jack gave it to me,” Emig recalled, “and he mentioned, ‘Jerry, that is the ball I scored with. Maintain onto it. Do not give it away.”
So Emig hawked the ball via an on-field celebration that stretched from one aspect of AT&T Stadium to the opposite, from the formal presentation close to the identical finish zone the place Sawyer solidified a 28-14 win over Texas to the taking part in of “Carmen Ohio” by the Buckeyes’ marching band a number of yards from the placement of Ewers’ crippling fumble. Emig was nonetheless cradling that ball greater than 20 minutes later, when Ohio State’s locker room opened to the media, and he repeated its origin story a time or two extra. Whether or not it will definitely finally ends up again with Sawyer, who will play the ultimate recreation of his collegiate profession towards Notre Dame at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta on Jan. 20, or prominently displayed on a trophy case contained in the Woody Hayes Athletic Heart stays to be seen. However its place in program historical past is unquestionable.
And what a whirlwind these final six weeks have been for Sawyer, one of the vital passionate gamers on the Buckeyes’ roster who endured an emotional meltdown within the aftermath of a fourth consecutive loss to Michigan, his unraveling unfold throughout three acts in three distinct locales at Ohio Stadium, all of them tinged with pepper spray from a melee gone incorrect. There was the verbal confrontation with Michigan defensive sort out Mason Graham, who incensed Sawyer by referring to Ohio State as a derogatory time period for the feminine anatomy. Sawyer responded by reminding Graham that the Wolverines would not be collaborating on this 12 months’s School Soccer Playoff. There was the theft of a Michigan flag that Sawyer ripped from the pole his opponents had been trying to plant at midfield for the second time in three years. Sawyer snared the maize and blue bunting in his proper hand earlier than hurling it to the turf in disgust. After which there was the close-range screaming at tight ends coach Keenan Bailey, whose shoulders Sawyer grabbed in frustration as Day watched in silence from a number of yards away. “They don’t seem to be f—— planting a flag on our area once more, bro!” Sawyer shrieked in Bailey’s face, his voice cracking on multiple event. “F— this s—, man. F— these guys. Plant a flag on our area? F— you!”
The rawness that poured from Sawyer on that frigid November afternoon mirrored each his private disgust as an Ohio native pressured to abdomen a profession’s price of losses to The Workforce Up North and the unshakable reminder that his historic 2021 recruiting class was persevering with to fall in need of each aim it got down to obtain. Sawyer and his classmates, a lot of whom he satisfied to bypass the NFL Draft for the possibility to lastly proper their wrongs, will go away Ohio State with zero wins over Michigan and 0 Large Ten titles. These blemishes cannot be erased. Which is why the Buckeyes entered the postseason keenly conscious that something in need of successful the nationwide championship could be seen as abject failure — and would possibly even value Day his job.
The message has radiated from participant to participant throughout a star-studded senior class that completed second within the nationwide rankings behind Alabama, a gaggle bursting with seven five-star prospects — two of which had been quarterbacks — and 14 gamers ranked among the many prime 100 recruits total. There was five-star edge rusher JT Tuimoloau, a ballyhooed move rusher who turned in one of many best particular person performances in program historical past towards Penn State two years in the past however who has hardly ever harassed quarterbacks with any measure of consistency ever since. There was five-star wideout Emeka Egbuka, who’s now the main receiver in Ohio State historical past, however a participant who advised reporters earlier this week that, “I’ve completely no {hardware} to point out for it.” There was outspoken cornerback Denzel Burke, whose March quote describing this season as “natty or bust” continues to generate dialog 10 months later, particularly now that Ohio State is one recreation from both consequence. There was tailback TreVeyon Henderson, whose laundry listing of accidents and sporadic problem working between the tackles justified the addition of Ole Miss switch Quinshon Judkins within the portal. And naturally, there was Sawyer, the primary recruit who ever dedicated to Day on Feb. 3, 2019, and a participant whose bodily items by no means fairly matched his statistical manufacturing. All of them entered the School Soccer Playoff with one thing to show.
“Because of this all of us selected to return to Ohio State,” mentioned left sort out Donovan Jackson, one other member of the 2021 recruiting class. “Because of this all of us selected to return again to Ohio State.”
A visit to the nationwide title recreation boiled right down to this: Ohio State main 21-14 within the latter phases of the fourth quarter; Texas clawing towards the aim line with a 27-yard completion from Ewers to wideout Matthew Golden and back-to-back move interference penalties towards the Buckeyes. It was at that second — with 4:04 remaining and the ball on the 1-yard line in a goal-to-go scenario — when somebody’s voice piped via the cellphone line within the Buckeyes’ teaching field above the sphere. “Boy, they scored quick there,” the unnamed staffer mentioned. To which defensive coordinator Jim Knowles snarled a retort that might show astoundingly prophetic. “They ain’t scored but,” Knowles replied.
From there, Knowles’ protection stuffed consecutive working performs to push the Longhorns again 7 yards, at which level passing grew to become their solely viable possibility. Sawyer knifed into the backfield on third-and-goal, pressuring Ewers to hurry a throw towards freshman wideout Ryan Wingo, the ball falling harmlessly incomplete. It was the umpteenth time that Sawyer had come inside a whisker of leveling his former roommate, the previous No. 1 total recruit within the nation who spent 4 months with the Buckeyes as a real freshman in 2021 earlier than transferring dwelling to Texas. Again and again on Friday night, Ewers nimbly flicked the ball away a millisecond or two earlier than Sawyer may drag him down, twice finishing desperation examine downs on a drive that knotted the sport at 14-14 late within the third quarter. However Ewers’ luck would quickly expire.
On fourth-and-goal from the 8-yard line, Sawyer dipped his shoulder beneath the pads of proper sort out Cameron Williams and flung each arms towards Ewers because the quarterback looked for open house. He dislodged the soccer and shoved Ewers to the bottom with jaw-dropping fluidity, the fumble ricocheting softly into his fingers as he turned upfield. Sawyer rollicked and rumbled to the tip zone with a convoy of teammates chasing him from behind.
“It was surreal,” Sawyer mentioned. “I felt like I used to be in quicksand. I used to be simply attempting to get to the tip zone so quick. I regarded again and [thought], ‘Hopefully I had a blocker,’ as a result of I knew a pair ability guys had been proper there, and I do not received wheels like them. However man, it was only a particular second.”
And one that may by no means be forgotten. From the stage the place Sawyer and Howard addressed the group, and the place Day was cheered by a fan base that loathed him six weeks earlier, the celebration spilled onto the sideline behind Ohio State’s bench. There, gamers slipped on white championship T-shirts and black championship hats to pose for images with followers in field-level suites. They shouted forwards and backwards with family members within the close by household part and signed autographs for followers who tossed memorabilia of their course. “Let’s f—— go, child!” Sawyer’s sister, Kyla, shouted from her front-row perch alongside mother and father Michelle and Lyle Sawyer, each of whom gestured frantically to their son. Had Sawyer not been clutching his trophy tightly in each fingers — defending it from the swarms of camera-wielding reporters shadowing his each transfer — he may need climbed into the bleachers to hitch them. The thought appeared to briefly cross his thoughts.
As a substitute, Sawyer exited the sphere at AT&T Stadium via a tunnel above which a gentleman sporting a white Ohio State jersey contorted his physique so the gamers may see its inscription. “NATTY BOUND” learn the customized stitching throughout the shoulder blades the place a reputation would historically be discovered. And the fan shouted to anybody who would hear that he bought the merchandise again in February. “Let’s go Bucks!” he yelled as a tv reporter snagged B-roll of his apparel.
The celebration that awaited Sawyer within the locker room was even grander, with teammate after teammate congratulating him on a efficiency for the ages. One after the other, they clapped his shoulder pads and sang his praises and pulled him in for hugs. As a result of six weeks after Sawyer plummeted to an emotional nadir, his rebirth had pushed Ohio State to the precipice of a nationwide title.
“You are the No. 1 Buckeye of all time,” Egbuka mentioned as Sawyer walked previous his locker. “You are Captain Buckeye.”
Michael Cohen covers school soccer and basketball for FOX Sports activities with an emphasis on the Large Ten. Observe him on Twitter @Michael_Cohen13.
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