Jack Sawyer is a national champion heading into this rookie season with the Pittsburgh Steelers in the NFL.
However, the former Ohio State football linebacker is still trying to process how the Buckeyes lost to rival Michigan in the regular season finale in 2025. The Wolverines pulled off a major upset with a 13-10 win on Nov. 30 in ‘The Game’ to keep OSU out of the Big Ten Conference Championship game.
The Buckeyes, of course, bounced back and ended up winning the national championship, which was sealed by a game-clinching fumble return for a touchdown by Sawyer, who never beat Michigan during his OSU career.
‘I think they beat us straight up last year, obviously, and the year before, but my sophomore year, we left the field and we were like, ‘This feels weird,’ ‘ Sawyer said during a recent podcast appearance on Not Just Football with Cam Heyward. ‘We lost by double digits, and it felt like we had beat the (expletive) out of them all game. You know, we ran a screen pass that we had never put in – not the formation, not the look, anything.
‘And you see them on the sideline, they’re doing (the signals), and we change it, we audible to it or whatever, and when we run it, all the D-linemen as soon as the ball is snapped, the linebackers, everybody, they sniffed it out.’
The game Sawyer is referencing is a 45-23 Michigan win in 2022, when both teams entered ‘The Game’ with an undefeated record. However, the Wolverines outscored the Buckeyes 21-3 in the fourth quarter, which included touchdown runs of 85 and 75 yards, respectively, from Michigan back Donovan Edwards.
The 2022 game stands out as it was 11 months before news broke that the NCAA was investigating Michigan over alleged sign-stealing.
‘It’s just good scouting,’ Sawyer said. ‘Come on.’
Conor Stalions responds to Jack Sawyer’s comments
Conor Stalions, the former Michigan analyst who is alleged to have led the sign-stealing scandal, responded to Sawyer’s comments on Tuesday, July 29. Stallions resigned from Michigan in November 2023.
‘Their signal for this play was: The letter ‘Y’ (TE in 99% of offenses), The Delay of Game sign. So ‘Y Delay.’ Wonder what this will be,’ Stalions wrote in a post on X. ‘Jack is admitting they never ran it before. Your head coach already admitted that you changed your signs for us.’
The NCAA is still in the process of giving out the final ruling of the investigation into sign-stealing and advanced scouting. The NCAA sent a notice of allegations to Michigan in August 2024, which included several Level I violations, the most serious offenses in the NCAA rulebook.
Meanwhile, Sawyer earned second-team all-Big Ten honors for the Buckeyes in 2025 and then helped the program win a national title. He was selected in the fourth round of the 2025 NFL Draft by the Steelers.
