Ohio State Defensive Ends Jack Sawyer, JT Tuimoloau Post Best Combined Effort of Career Against Tennessee

Ohio State’s first-round College Football Playoff victory was already well in hand, the Buckeyes up 42-10 with less than 11 minutes to play, but that did nothing to quell the exuberance of Jack Sawyer’s celebration.

His joy wasn’t over a play he made, instead he was jumping up and down on the sideline and pointing with two hands at his defensive end running mate JT Tuimoloau, who had just recorded a strip-sack of Tennessee quarterback Nico Iamaleava. A similar energy shone through when, during Tuimoloau’s postgame interview, Sawyer ran up and gave him a bear hug.

“Unmatched,” Tuimoloau said about what it’s like when they’re both playing at such a level. “In previous games, we always matched each other's energy, and whenever he makes a play, I want to make a play, and vice versa. But just seeing him, man, it makes me happy. I'm blessed to play alongside him, and I couldn't be thankful enough to have another edge like him alongside of me.”

Sawyer and Tuimoloau had ample reason to celebrate against the Volunteers. Both have had dominant games in their Ohio State careers but there has perhaps never been a contest in which they’ve both taken over simultaneously the way they did in their final game in the Shoe. The duo combined for 13 tackles, 3.5 sacks and three pass breakups to go with Tuimoloau’s forced fumble in a 42-17 win.

“We knew they were going to have a good game,” defensive coordinator Jim Knowles said. “The set of their quarterback was a lot different, it was a lot tighter. We thought we would be able to change up coverage enough to make him hold the ball, so we expected that they were going to have a good game.

Sawyer and Tuimoloau took turns announcing their presence on Tennessee’s first two drives of the game. Each had a hand in forcing those possessions to go three-and-out.

On 3rd-and-4 on the Volunteers’ first drive, quarterback Nico Iamaleava came under pressure from a collapsed pocket courtesy of Sawyer (despite being double-teamed) and defensive tackle Tyleik Williams. Iamaleava scrambled only for Sawyer to chase him down from behind as Cody Simon met him from the front to stop him 3 yards short of a first down and force a punt.

Tuimoloau executed a classic dip-and-rip technique to collect Ohio State’s first sack of the game the next time Tennessee had the ball, a loss of 12 yards that shoved the Volunteers back to a 3rd-and-23. Williams also had pressure on the play.

“We took turns, it looked like,” Tuimoloau said of he and Sawyer. “I got a sack, he got a sack. I got one, he got one. So we’re just feeding off each other. We always dreamed of having games like that and we just got to continue to stay consistent and put another game together.”

Not to be outdone, Sawyer recorded his first sack of the game on Tennessee’s following possession, combining with nose tackle Ty Hamilton. His solo sack came on some picturesque technique off the edge in the third quarter, chopping down the hands of his blocker and burning him with pure speed off the edge to slam Iamaleava to the turf.

As much as his statistical impact and the plays he made, Sawyer served his usual role of hype man in Ohio Stadium. He was pumping the crowd up after big plays and on third downs, adding to an electric playoff atmosphere in the Shoe.

“It means everything to me,” Sawyer said of playing in the Shoe. “When we saw that we got another home game against a team like that coming in here, I knew it was gonna be awesome. The crowd was electric tonight. I mean, that's the best I think I've heard it since I've been here. So I mean, just to end it that way with this group of seniors and with Coach (Ryan) Day, I mean, it was just awesome.”

"They counted us out, but we're right here baby" - Jack Sawyer pic.twitter.com/cTUOJIRk20
— Adam King (@AdamKing10TV) December 22, 2024

As disruptive as they were rushing the passer – Tuimoloau had two sacks while Sawyer had 1.5 – the duo made as much of an impact in both the running game and batting down passes at the line of scrimmage. Each got a paw on separate attempted screens from Tennessee to force incompletions, and Sawyer knocked down a second attempted underneath ball out of Iamaleava’s hand.

Tuimoloau racked up a career-high eight tackles to go with his two sacks, PBU and forced fumble. Five of those takedowns were solo.

“Coach Knowles has been trusting me,” Tuimoloau said. “Big credit for our DBs ... it was great getting different looks and I think we showed that today.”

Next comes a chance at revenge for Sawyer and Tuimoloau. Easily the biggest blemish on Ohio State’s résumé defensively is its 32-31 loss at Oregon in Week 7, and the Buckeyes failed to record a sack in that game. Now the dynamic defensive end duo gets a chance to rewrite that script when they face the No. 1 Ducks in the CFP quarterfinals at the Rose Bowl.

“They're a great team,” Sawyer said. “We love playing against teams like that. We just played a really good team. Oregon's a really good team. They're undefeated, Big Ten champs. So those are the types of games we want. Who wouldn't want that in California at the Rose Bowl? So it's gonna be fun.”