Ohio State’s top recruit Jack Sawyer skipping final high school season to prep for Buckeyes

The next snap Jack Sawyer takes will be for Ohio State football in 2021.

Jack Sawyer ended his high school football career, as he gets ready for Ohio State football.

According to the 247Sports Composite, Sawyer is the No. 1 player from Ohio, the No. 3 strong-side defensive end in the country and the No. 3 overall player in the 2021 recruiting class. The Pickerington, Ohio native planned to early enroll at Ohio State in January 2021. On Friday, he and his family decided it was in his best interest to end his high school career and train for Ohio State.

With high school football up in the air in Ohio, can you blame Jack Sawyer?

Sawyer is now the fifth Ohio State football recruit of the 2021 cycle to sit out playing high school football this fall. He joins running back TreVeyon Henderson out of Virginia, running back Evan Pryor of out North Carolina, tight end Sam Hart out of Colorado and cornerback Jordan Hancock out of Georgia. This is nearly a third of the 2021 Ohio State recruiting class not playing this fall.

Then again, nobody up in Columbus will be playing football this fall either. The Big Ten postponed its football season for the spring. Ohio State players and coaches have clamored for the opportunity to play this year, but the Big Ten university presidents said no. Expect these five coveted recruits to do what Sawyer is planning on and getting ready to early enroll this spring.

If they get indoctrinated at Ohio State fairly quickly, there is a chance you could see players like Sawyer taking part in the 2021 spring college football season up in Big Ten country. How that will all factor into eligibility remains to be seen, but this could be seen as an advantage for Big Ten schools in recruitment: Early enroll and you’ll get to play in your first semester on campus.

As for Sawyer skipping his senior season, it’s a case by case basis about what’s best for a player’s future. If he played quarterback over defensive end, it may not be as easy to take away all those in-game snaps and practices reps you’d get in a fall high school season. Given that he plays defensive end, maybe taking the season off and train might be the better call for him?

Sawyer isn’t the first top recruit to not play this fall, nor will he end up being the last.

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