Jonah Jackson hasn’t lived in Columbus long enough to know more than one Cap City Diner exists.
“Is there more than one Cap City?” he asked on Monday afternoon.
All he knows is he met Ryan Day there for a meal earlier this year that set him on course to change his football future.
In an alternate reality that seemed fairly likely not too long ago, Jackson would have wrapped up a fifth losing season in a row at Rutgers with a multi-touchdown loss to Penn State on Nov. 30, concluding his college career without a bowl trip. He’d have spent the entirety of December not preparing for another game but getting ready for the NFL. What had become the norm would have remained the norm.
Instead, because of his decision to graduate transfer to Ohio State in the spring, Jackson now finds himself in the spotlight. In less than two weeks, he’ll make his bowl debut in the Fiesta Bowl as the starting left guard for the second-ranked team in the country with a national championship berth on the line.
“I'm enjoying a lot, man,” Jackson said. “Christmas definitely came early. Hopefully we get a couple more presents in the future.”
Christmas came even earlier for Ohio State when Jackson chose to become a Buckeye in February, opting to play there despite considering other major programs, including Oklahoma.
Neither Greg Studrawa nor Ryan Day announced that any offensive linemen had cemented starting spots entering the summer. But even by the time spring practices began, it was clear that Wyatt Davis and Josh Myers were in line to replace two of the four starters from last season’s line. Davis started three games at the end of the 2018 season when Demetrius Knox suffered an injury, shining in postseason action, and Studrawa had mentioned Myers as someone who had everything click for him in the middle of last season.
“It's a hard thing to do what he did. And just the way he carried himself throughout that whole process and how professional he was, we all love him so much. So just everything he's done, this whole process has been next to perfect.”– Josh Myers on Jonah Jackson
With Davis seemingly locked in at right guard and Myers set at center, the uncertainty of who would line up at left guard was one of the main questions in the spring, especially due to a lack of veteran depth. The options at the time? Gavin Cupp, a fourth-year junior who took most of the reps in the spring; Branden Bowen, the starting right tackle who had experience at guard; Harry Miller, a freshman who didn’t enroll until the summer; and Matthew Jones, a second-year sophomore.
Then came Jackson.
The 6-foot-4, 305-pound interior offensive lineman had nearly two seasons of starting experience at center and guard, earning honorable mention All-Big Ten as a redshirt junior at Rutgers in 2018. In the mind of Ohio State’s coaches, the former team captain fit both as a quality lineman and somebody who could add experience and an elder voice on a young line.
On Feb. 25, Jackson made it official, announcing his transfer to Ohio State.
“Honestly when you told me I'd be here doing this right now, I'd probably laugh at you last year,” Jackson said. “It's just a blessing, man. Just have these guys, everybody here around me being in this group and being part of this culture in such a historical program, it's incredible.”
Before the 2019 regular season even ended, he had racked up more wins than he accumulated in his four years as a Scarlet Knight. The Buckeyes are 13-0 this season, including wins in all nine of their regular-season Big Ten games and the conference championship game. To put that into perspective, Rutgers went 1-35 in the Big Ten during his time as a Scarlet Knight.
Myers remembers when they were sitting in the locker room after the Buckeyes topped Penn State earlier this season, and Jackson looked at him and told him he had never beat the Nittany Lions.
“It's a hard thing to do what he did,” Myers said. “And just the way he carried himself throughout that whole process and how professional he was, we all love him so much. So just everything he's done, this whole process has been next to perfect.”
As a fifth-year senior, Jackson was Ohio State’s only offensive lineman to earn first-team All-Big Ten honors from the conference’s coaches.
He’s been a key cog in the team’s strong line play, especially in the run game. And though he didn’t enroll in the university until the summer, Jackson managed to develop chemistry with the rest of the line relatively quickly.
“If you have a good group of guys that believe in each other and trust in each other and are able to execute everything efficiently, it don't matter how long you've been together for. It's just a matter of putting it together on Saturday.”
Together, the five linemen have done that on enough Saturdays to lead Ohio State to the College Football Playoff.
Now, rather than spending the holidays at home, Jackson will be met by his family at the Fiesta Bowl. And don’t think for a second that he’s unhappy about that.
“I'm a big boy now,” Jackson said. “I don't need to wake up and sit on my stairs and take some Christmas pictures, open my stocking anymore. I mean, it'd be awesome to. But they're going to be out in Arizona. They'll celebrate with me out there and then probably before I head up.”
Christmas, as a college football player, is better on the road preparing for the playoff – even though Cap City Diner doesn’t have any locations in Arizona.
