The Ohio State Buckeyes are absolutely stacked this upcoming season with the vast majority of their draft-eligible underclassmen returning to school for one more season. And according to returning veteran defensive end Jack Sawyer, that was a concerted effort from the older players who felt like they had unfinished business.
During a recent appearance on The Bobby Carpenter Show with former Ohio State linebackers Bobby Carpenter and Joshua Perry, Jack Sawyer opened up about just how much leadership the team is returning this season.
“We’re in our senior year. We’ve been in the program for three years going on four. Now, we are the old guys. We have to carry the water. We have to be the leaders in the locker room. We have to set the standard. We have to make sure we leave the program better than when we got here,” Sawyer said. “When we were all talking about coming back, I remember talking to Trey and Emeka about how our leadership would have to be to a different level. We’d have to hold the team to a different standard.
“We have the best leadership since I’ve been here. You see people stepping into that mold now. You see Trey, Emeka and Denzel being more vocal. Everybody across the board has stepped up and filled that role we all should be.”
And make no mistake, they’re coming back for a reason and they have a clear mission: beat Michigan and win a national title, in that order.
“Being from Columbus, loving the Buckeyes through and through since I was a little kid, I wanted to leave a legacy (at Ohio State). That’s our main goal coming back,” Sawyer said. “We want to bring a national championship and the Gold Pants back to Columbus.”
We’ll have to see if they can make it happen.
