Final proof of presence from the Cotton Bowl-the last contest between Ohio State and Texas-occurred in the last quarter, and it was the fourth-and-goal situation when the Longhorns tried desperately to level scores at 21. Quarterback Quinn Ewers dropped back but was intercepted when Buckeyes’ superstar defensive lineman Jack Sawyer muscled through the opposing offensive lineman and batted the ball out of Ewers’ hand. He picked up that fumble and ran 83 yards in the other direction to score a touchdown beyond reach for Texas.
Later, Sawyer confessed, “I blacked out during the play.” “I almost blacked out when I saw nothing but green grass ahead of me,” he said. “The resiliency of this team from a month ago has been incredible, he added after the game. “We sat up here last year with a sore taste in our mouth and heard a lot of things. But we kept swinging.” After taking some time to enjoy the great victory over time, the Ohio State football account released a video from just after the play with head coach Ryan Day and Sawyer sitting on the sideline.
“You want to leave a legacy behind? You become a legend…you just became a legend,” he told the Buckeyes star.
“I don’t know if there’s a guy … who loves being a Buckeye more,” Day told reporters after the game about Sawyer. “This is somebody … who has always wanted to be a Buckeye, who has always wanted for a moment like this. So to see him get the moment that he had today — I mean, he’s become like family to me.” Ohio State will face off against Notre Dame, which defeated Penn State in the Orange Bowl, in the national title game on Jan. 20.
