The Ohio State Buckeyes have steamrolled through the first-ever 12-team College Football Playoff, giving fans notions of coach Ryan Day’s team’s worthiness as one of the best teams in recent memory.
The Buckeyes’ sharp postseason turnaround has erased the sting of regular season disappointments against the Oregon Ducks and Michigan Wolverines in the regular season with Ohio State in hot pursuit of its first national title since 2014, when Urban Meyer roamed the sidelines in Columbus.
On Thursday, a heartfelt letter from Buckeyes star Jack Sawyer surfaced, during which he made a stark admission on how his fourth career loss to the Wolverines has affected him, even during his team’s run to the national title game.
“…Losing to TTUN (the team up north, Ohio State’s moniker for Michigan), as these huge favorites, knowing it was our class’s last chance to beat them…… I can’t even describe it,” Sawyer said.
“I won’t ever get over that loss.” Sawyer has failed to beat the Wolverines in all four seasons since first suiting up for the Buckeyes as a five-star prospect out of Pickerington, Ohio in 2021.
He now has a chance to erase those many of those thoughts with a win in the championship game against Notre Dame on Monday, January 20 in Atlanta.
Sawyer says his team has used the loss as motivation. “After the TTUN game, we gave ourselves all a week to digest it,” he wrote. “Then we had a meeting: players only, plus Coach Day. Sawyer said the Buckeyes had two options, and chose the one that led to their recent success on the field in postseason action.
“Option A: We could stay down after taking that punch from TTUN, and already be defeated, and play the way most people expected us to play. “Or Option B: We could get back up. Be (expletive) off. Lock in. Go out there.
And play OUR (expletive) game,” Sawyer said. “We could quit, like we knew everyone wanted us to … or be the best team in the country, like we know we are.
“We chose Option B.”
