When Jim Knowles laid out his vision for Jack Sawyer this fall, he had a simple idea.

Sawyer had spent the previous season in a hybrid role in between defensive end and linebacker.

But he offered the most upside as a traditional lineman, a feeling the Ohio State defensive coordinator conveyed in a meeting in his office in January.

“We had a good talk,” Sawyer said, “that I’ll probably make my money one day with my hand in the dirt.”

Ten months later, Sawyer recalls it as a collective realization among them and defensive line coach Larry Johnson.

All agreed Sawyer would benefit from lining up at his natural position on a full-time basis rather than splitting time at a hybrid end and linebacker spot known as the “Jack,” which brought an additional layer of assignments for him as a sophomore as Knowles introduced a new defensive scheme.

“What’s funny is we all knew we were thinking the same thing,” Sawyer said, “but last year, I was going to do anything for the team. I’m a team-first guy.”

The move sowed the seeds for Sawyer to make an impact in the trenches for one of the stingiest defenses in the nation, among the reasons the Buckeyes are unbeaten and in contention for the College Football Playoff entering the final two weeks of the regular season.

Replacing Zach Harrison as the starting defensive end opposite J.T. Tuimoloau, Sawyer has emerged as a penetrating force.

“He’s more comfortable every day,” Knowles said, “and the more comfortable you are, the more you can utilize your athletic skill.”

Sports run in Sawyer’s family.

His father, Lyle, was a linebacker at Findlay, and his mother, Michelle, was a high-scoring forward at Bowling Green who later played professionally in Finland and Switzerland.

Jack is the youngest of two siblings. His sister, Kyla, was a standout on the basketball court at Pickerington North and was bound to play at the St. Louis College of Pharmacy before knee surgeries cut her career short.

“We’re all athletes,” Sawyer said, “and it’s kind of the way we all bonded with each other.”

Some of their favorite memories include hosting the neighborhood kids for games of Knockout on their driveway hoop in Pickerington.

Sawyer participated in multiple sports growing up, including basketball and baseball, but football was his favorite.

He loved the Buckeyes. His childhood bedroom was painted scarlet and gray. His parents held watch parties for family and friends. He counted James Laurinaitis, the All-American linebacker who is now a graduate assistant, as his favorite player.

“I remember knowing that Ohio State football was a big deal before I can remember anything,” he said.

It made the Buckeyes alluring in his recruitment. He was a freshman in 2018 when he met with Urban Meyer in spring practice and received a scholarship offer.

“It was surreal,” Sawyer said. “It was a dream come true, definitely.”

Within a year, he was verbally committed just as Ryan Day succeeded Meyer.

“We didn’t want him to feel the pressure that he had to be an Ohio State guy,” Lyle said. “We really didn’t want him committing that early. But he wanted to.”

Sawyer was only 16 years old when he made his commitment and said he appreciated the approach by his dad, who sought to keep him from rushing the process as he was courted by multiple powerhouse programs, including Michigan and Penn State.

“We made the right decision,” Sawyer said. “He knew all along that I wanted to come here, and he just wanted to make sure that I knew this was a big decision.”

Sawyer was often advanced for his age. He played on youth teams with boys who were several grades ahead of him in elementary and middle school.

“It was to push him and challenge him,” Lyle said, “so he wasn’t always the best kid.”

Sawyer was a linebacker until the seventh grade. But as he sprouted to 6 feet 2, he began lining up as a defensive end, a spot that promised to allow him to use his length. He ultimately grew two more inches.

The switch was a disappointment at first. Sawyer envisioned following Laurinaitis’s path.

But he soon found that he enjoyed lining up along the edge of the line of scrimmage and chasing after quarterbacks.

Sawyer is often cheerful. When he was a baby, an uncle nicknamed him as “Happy Jack” due to his frequent smiling.

The outlook has stuck over two decades.

“He’s a pretty upbeat, positive kid,” Michelle said.

The approach has continued to help him over his career. Sawyer led the Buckeyes with 4½ sacks last season but did not start, as he was more often in the “Jack” role. The one-time five-star prospect was undeterred.

“He’s a hard worker,” Lyle said, “so he was never not going to be at this point.”

That work ethic has carried over to the field.

“He brings the energy,” Tuimoloau said. “He just makes it. I can feed off it.”

Sawyer’s stat line is not flashy. He has 32 tackles, 2½ for a loss and 1½ sacks with two pass break-ups.

But Pro Football Focus has accounted 22 total pressures from Sawyer, the third-most among the Buckeyes, and graded him as one of their top defenders as he has played twice as many snaps per game, a key cog in the front seven.

Knowles make a similar assessment when evaluating the effort by Sawyer this fall.

“Noticeably, he’s getting better,” Knowles said. "It’s all the hard work people don’t see unless you break it down. He’s controlling blocks, getting off blocks, making tackles, affecting the quarterback even if he doesn’t make the sack or hit. He’s just been really productive.”

Sawyer has reveled in the opportunity to produce amid a playoff push for the school in his backyard.

“To be able to play in front of my hometown and having only grown up 15 minutes away from here means the world to me,” he said. “I really do feel that sense of hometown. I want to make my hometown proud. I want to win a national championship.”

Joey Kaufman covers Ohio State football for The Columbus Dispatch. Follow him on Facebook and X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. He can also be contacted at jkaufman@dispatch.com.

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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio State junior Jack Sawyer makes impact as full-time defensive end