DALLAS — Tyvis Powell was just an 8-year-old kid when he knew he wanted to play for Ohio State. All it took was him watching one game played way back on Jan. 3, 2003.
"Ever since the 2002 (season) when they won the national championship I said I was going to play at Ohio State,” he says.
Powell grew up in the Buckeye State; he's from the Cleveland area. A few years after watching the Buckeyes take down Miami to win their most recent national title, he attended Bedford High School in the Cleveland suburbs.
He's been around Ohio State football for most of his life. Earlier this season, he called playing for the Buckeyes "his dream."
He wasn't a highly-recruited guy during his playing days at Bedford. Powell was just a three-star prospect according to 247 Sports and was rated as just the No. 20 overall player in the state of Ohio during his senior year.
Yet because he wanted to be a Buckeye so bad, he was willing to do anything to make that happen.
"If you really want something you have to work hard," Powell said Tuesday at Ohio State's on-campus media day. "I think LeBron James might've said it the best when he came back to Cleveland, said that people from Northeast Ohio, if you want something here you've got to work for it. He's not lying. That's like a fact. All the people that I know from Cleveland actually had to work to get where they're at today.”
Powell wasn't alone in his dream, though. Playing for the Buckeyes is a goal of many players who grow up in the state of Ohio.
This year's Ohio State roster has 62 players listed from the state of Ohio. Some are on full scholarships, others are walk-ons, but quite a few of them grew up wanting to play for the Buckeyes.
"Ever since I watched the Buckeyes do it back when I was real young — it was second grade, maybe — it’s just something that I’ve wanted to do and something that’s been a goal of mine," said junior linebacker Joshua Perry, a graduate of Olentangy High School just outside of Columbus.
It's even more special for some of this year's Ohio-bred players to represent the Buckeyes in a national championship game when they take on No. 2 Oregon on Monday evening.
"I was telling people this and when people ask me how it feels around town when I’m at home, I tell them it’s something I’ve dreamed of for so long," Perry said. "When we were getting recruited we said we were going to get to the national championship, and now we’ve just got to finish the deal here. It means so much to be able to do that, especially with the people behind me in the community and all that Ohio State means to people in Ohio and all over, it means a big deal."
Even the Buckeyes head coach hails from the state of Ohio. Urban Meyer was born in Toledo and went to high school in Ashtabula. He coached at Cincinnati and Bowling Green before eventually winding up at Ohio State.
Bringing a national title back to his home state is something Meyer desperately wants to make happen.
"I love this state, it's my home state," Meyer recently told FOX Sports' Stewart Mandel. "You talk about this university and there's no pro football here in Columbus, Ohio. It's a city of 2 million people that live and die by their Buckeyes and that'd just be a great moment for them."
When you grow up in the Buckeye State, football becomes part of your life and, naturally, rooting for Ohio State is a common thread among many Ohioans.
And when the Buckeyes take on the Ducks on Monday night, they'll have full support back home.
"I think they’re very proud, just because of the fact that we’re on the big stage," said wide receiver Devin Smith, who hails from football-crazed Massillon. "I think the state of Ohio is so proud, and Coach Meyer said we have to make this great state of Ohio proud and I think we’ve done that."
