Jack Sawyer and Will Howard are still basking in the glory of being national champions.
Appearing at a Raising Cane’s in Columbus on Wednesday morning, the star quarterback and defensive end of Ohio State’s national championship run wore big smiles on their faces and drew a crowd of Buckeye fans that stretched around the building for an opportunity to celebrate with the newly cemented Buckeye legends.
When youre Jack Sawyer in Columbus, fans cheer for you as you hand out drive-thru orders. pic.twitter.com/pSMA1z2bLG
— Dan Hope (@Dan_Hope) January 22, 2025
From this morning: Will Howard and Jack Sawyer meeting with fans after their shift at Canes pic.twitter.com/5xTbYgOqps
— Dan Hope (@Dan_Hope) January 22, 2025
While they haven’t had much time to sleep yet since returning to Columbus on Tuesday afternoon, Howard and Sawyer said they’ve had a lot of fun celebrating their championship with their teammates over the past two days.
“It's been a good time,” Sawyer said. “Obviously, we had a lot of fun the night after the game, hanging out with everybody and all the guys, and seeing the coaches and everybody the next day on the plane and having a fun plane ride home, so it's been awesome. It's been nothing short of everything you ever dreamed of. I'm excited for Sunday. It's going to be a good time to send everybody out the right way one last time together before we go our separate ways and start training for the next level.”
Sawyer, a Pickerington native who grew up dreaming of winning a national championship for the Buckeyes, said “being able to bring a championship back to Columbus means everything to me.”
“And being able to do it with guys like Will, everybody else on the team here, Coach Day and this city, it means everything to me,” Sawyer said. “It means the world to me.”
Howard said it was an “unbelievable feeling” to see how the Buckeyes were received by their fans upon their return to Columbus, from the fans who waited outside in the cold for the team to arrive at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center on Tuesday to those who did so again on Wednesday.
“It just shows you how much it means, really, to this city and to this fan base,” Howard said. “It's so cool.”
National Champions welcomed back by THE BEST DAMN FANS IN THE LAND pic.twitter.com/pGxl00Ueje
— Ohio State Football (@OhioStateFB) January 21, 2025
Howard said he “couldn’t have made a better decision” than the one he made a year ago to transfer to Ohio State for his final year of college football.
“I'm just so thankful that God gave me a chance to be a Buckeye,” Howard said. “Because getting to be here and play with guys like Jack and getting to be a part of this brotherhood, it's truly like nothing else. And I'm just so thankful we were able to get it done for this city and for our locker room, for the guys in that locker room and all the work that we put in, all the love that we have for each other.”
You can hear everything Sawyer and Howard had to say during their press conference at Raising Cane’s in the video at the top of the page. (Photos courtesy of Raising Cane’s)
