Ohio State hasn’t beaten Michigan in “The Game” since 2019, a four-game losing streak, but they definitely made it up to Buckeyes fans last year, lifting the national championship trophy for the first time since 2014.
And while players, coaches, and fans all wish the team could have picked up another “W” against their hated rivals, 2025 Pittsburgh Steelers draftee Jack Sawyer thinks it was all worth it.
Jack Sawyer Says Michigan Loss Was ‘Worth It’ After Winning National Championship
Jack Sawyer, who was emotional following Ohio State’s loss to the Wolverines last year, said that while some Wolverine fans can use the game as a leg up on their rivals, lifting that trophy erased all the pain.
“Winning a national championship,” Sawyer said on “Footbahlin with Ben Roethlisberger.” “That takes no emphasis off how important The Game is … But when you win a national championship, if anyone tells you they’d rather go 1-12 and just beat the team up north, you’re crazy. You’re playing this game to win championships,” Sawyer explains.
“And make no mistake about it — no one wants to beat those guys more than we do. But at the end of the day, there’s nothing we could have done after that. I mean, we have our shot to go chase the ultimate goal, which is to win a national championship.”
Sawyer had a goal-line interception for the Buckeyes, helping hold the Wolverines to just 13 points, but ultimately, the offense went cold. But the ultimate goal is to win it all, he said.
“And like in the NFL, you lose four games in a regular season, you’re probably the one overall seed in the playoffs,” Sawyer said. “So that’s kind of like the approach we took, especially with the expanded playoffs. I think it’s going to continue to be like that. ‘The Game’ will still be ‘The Game,’ because it is ‘The Game,’ the best rivalry in sports.”
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“But I think at the end of the day, I think you’d be crazy to say you would rather beat them and not win a national championship instead of win a national championship and not beat them. In a perfect world, you do both of those things. But obviously, you know, we didn’t. But winning a national championship kind of erases all that, for me it does.”
Throughout his Buckeye career, Sawyer never defeated “Big Blue.” But lifting that golden national championship trophy, for the newly drafted Steeler, made it all worth it.
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