The prized recruit in the Ohio State 2021 class injured his knee last Friday night. Here is an update on the status of the highly ranked defensive end.
Ohio State’s top commit in the 2021 recruiting class, Jack Sawyer, suffered a torn MCL in his Pickerington North’s loss to Olentangy Orange in the first round of the OHSAA playoffs Friday night.
Sawyer, a five-star defensive end prospect, is rated as the nations second best recruit in the 2021 class by 247 sports. He took to his twitter account to say this, via landgrantholyland.com:
"“Just want to say thank you to everyone who has had me in their thoughts and wishing me well. I will have my MCL surgically repaired sometime this week. If I could go back and relive it the same way I 100% would without a doubt. I’m going to come back stronger than ever. Thank you.”"
The great news for Ohio State is that the ACL and meniscus appear to be stable as just the MCL in his knee was torn. According to research done by Eleven Warriors, the MCL tear should take about eight weeks after surgery to fully heal. So this should not impact his senior football season.
The injury occurred while the he was playing quarterback for his high school team. Sawyer, the Columbus, Ohio native, was asked to play quarterback after an injury to Pickerington North’s starter earlier in the season.
"“He can throw the ball 70 yards,” Pickerington North coach Nate Hillerich told Sporting News. “If he wanted to be a quarterback, he would probably be a four or five-star quarterback.”"
Sawyer is the prized possession of the 2021 recruiting class and he’s been actively recruiting other 2021 prospects to Ohio State as well. 247 sports even gives Sawyer high first round NFL draft pick potential. And with the coaching of Larry Johnson, I would say that is well within Sawyer’s reach.
With the young man born to be a Buckeye, we wish him well for his surgery and hope for a full and speedy recovery. We don’t want the injury to impede him from fulfilling his dream of wearing the Scarlet and Gray.