The American Eagle advertising campaign featuring actress Sydney Sweeney last July has now eventually found its way into college football. Over a year after going viral, the campaign is still doing the rounds. As he recalled one of his most significant players, former Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer referred to Sydney Sweeney and the viral American Eagle advertisement.
“Joey Bosa’s one of my all-time favorites, but also one of my all-time favorite families,” Meyer said in an August 20 clip posted by The Triple Option podcast. “So, what’s that? Sydney Sweeney has great jeans? Joey Bosa has great genes. His father was a first-round draft pick [out of] Boston College Eagles as a defensive end. His mother is in the Kumerow family, and Eric Kumerow played for us at Ohio State, another first-round pick. His brother became a draft pick at defensive end.”
“So, this was a can’t-miss. He came from arguably the best high school football program in America, St. Thomas Aquinas. He’s one of those guys that you watch five, six plays, and I say, ‘I’m good, turn it off.’ And when we got him, that changed the trajectory of our program. I don’t think we win a national title without Joey Bosa.”
Actress Sydney Sweeney was the face of a July 2025 denim campaign for American Eagle. The campaign was titled “Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans,” which was a wordplay on “jeans” and “genes.” The campaign featured Sweeney discussing biological traits she got from her parents, then boldly stating, “My jeans are blue.”
Meyer’s point of reference was his former player Joey Bosa, whose family legacy is as worthy of a mention as Sweeney’s American Eagle campaign. From almost every angle of his lineage, Bosa had a footballer to inherit some athletic genes from.
And the outcome of being surrounded by many first-round picks was that he himself became a first-round pick, drafted with the third overall pick by the San Diego Chargers in the 2016 NFL Draft. His little brother, Nick Bosa, also played college football at Ohio State and was selected second overall in the 2019 NFL Draft by the San Francisco 49ers.
Bosa was one of Meyer’s strongest defensive pillars at Ohio State, being one of the most important defensive players on the 2014 national championship-winning team. His NFL-like physique — 6-foot-6 and 275 pounds — was enough proof that he would hit the ground running from his freshman year. He played in all 14 games and started 10, recording 44 total tackles, 13 tackles for loss, and 7.5 sacks.
He took the performance even higher in his sophomore season, recording 55 total tackles, 21.5 tackles for loss, and 13.5 sacks. He then capped it with the national championship, earning him the Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year and Big Ten Lineman of the Year. Before entering the NFL Draft, he drew the curtains on his collegiate career with an overall record of 148 total tackles, 51 tackles for loss, and 26 sacks.