'Captain Buckeye' Jack Sawyer, Ohio State's senior leader, embraces full-circle moment
ARLINGTON, Texas — A fair distance away from the stage where confetti would soon flurry, where Ohio State head coach Ryan Day would hoist the Cotton Bowl trophy and quarterback Will Howard and edge rusher Jack Sawyer would be named MVPs on their respective sides of the ball, a communications representative for the Buckeyes squeezed a football in the crook of his arm around the 9-yard line. He'd been holding it for quite some time, since at least the moment when the final buzzer sounded but perhaps a while longer, around 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 team to the national championship game. There was an instant between those two snapshots when Sawyer, a revered senior and team captain, entrusted the memento to Jerry Emig, the program's longtime sports information director, with very specific instructions.
