“I lived and died with Ohio State football,” Jack Sawyer wrote for The Players’ Tribune earlier this year. The Pickerington native was Ryan Day’s first-ever commit and went through all the highs and lows in these past four years. At the end of the ride, Sawyer emerged as the team’s foundation. Despite his making his debut in the NFL for the Steelers this year. Sawyer’s love for the Buckeyes was so fierce that he was willing to ignore his dad’s advice about the program.

Ohio State was really a slam dunk choice for Jack Sawyer. He was a devoted fan, and by the time his recruitment rolled around, he was the No. 1 prospect in the country. The timing, though, was interesting. Ohio State was in transition. Urban Meyer stepped aside, and Ryan Day was stepping into his first head coaching job. Coaching the Buckeyes is the kind of gig that dazzles on the surface, but it can also wear a man down. Day inherited both the pressure and the promise, and one of the first building blocks of his tenure was Sawyer.

“My dad was really big on trying to get me to go see other places, not feel the pressure to have to go to Ohio State,” Sawyer revealed on The Christian Kuntz Podcast. But the DE was dead set on Ohio State from the get-go. He had offers from Michigan (no surprise there), PSU, Notre Dame, and Oklahoma. Sawyer was so sure about committing that he didn’t even bother informing his parents. Ryan Day didn’t know that until Sawyer called him to announce his decision. “I’m like, ‘Hey, I’m coming.’ The phone was dead for 20 seconds,” he recalled.

“I was like, ‘Coach Day, you there?’ He’s like, ‘You serious?’ I was like, ‘Yeah, I’m coming. I’m committing,” Sawyer added about that eventful call. The DE would prove to be a foundation for Ohio State football under Ryan Day. When the time came for him and his teammates to go for the draft, he was the one who convinced some players to come back for the 2024 season. Sawyer, unfortunately, won’t be able to say that he beat Michigan during his time at Columbus. But he channeled that pent-up energy to bring home a national championship. If not for Sawyer’s 83-yard scoop-and-score in the Cotton Bowl against Texas, Ryan Day wouldn’t have had a national title to lean on.

Ryan Day might be charting his way back to a second title this year. But it all began with a young Jack Sawyer, who grew into a popular leader at Columbus. His love for Ohio State also led him to develop a warm relationship with his coach.

Jack Sawyer stood by Ryan Day despite the hate for losing against Michigan

Sawyer went through a tough start himself at Ohio State under Ryan Day. The DE ultimately became Captain Buckeye, and Day was among the best coaches in college football. But all that fame aside, Sawyer has seen Day become the coach he is today. “He’s become like family to me,” Day said after OSU won the National Championship. But before that, he went through another troubling loss against Michigan, which too against an unranked one. Sawyer is known for his heated mood after that loss, snatching away a maize and blue flag that a player was going to plant on Columbus soil.

Day is 1-4 against Michigan, and the community tends to turn hostile against him when TTUN clashes with the Buckeyes. But Jack Sawyer would still, 100% stand with his head coach, be it sun or rain. “I remember he was telling us about how, after one of our losses to the Team Up North, he had to take his son and his daughters out of school. […] Hearing that made us so angry,” Sawyer said before the National Championship game. “In the good times, he wants the spotlight on us. In the bad times, he wants the spotlight on himself. And it’s definitely unacceptable, the amount of toxic bull**** he’s had to deal with over the years,” he added.

“But if you’re wondering why his players play so damn hard for him — well, there you go,” Sawyer said. Ryan Day has now been a head coach for 7 years. But in this short span of time, he’s helped shape stars like Jack Sawyer and more. There’s a reason why he’s able to recruit the best players in the sport, who go on to be dependable players for NFL rosters 3-4 years later. Day continues what he started with Jack Sawyer all those years ago, after that life-changing phone call.