Sawyer used to being in the spotlight

So much so that many national scouting services had Sawyer as the No. 1 player in his recruiting class by the time he headed to high school.

It was a ranking that Sawyer, as a competitor, took very seriously.

“It’s like one of those things, I think, that makes him so great. He wants to be the best,” said Hillerich, who said Sawyer wore No. 40 in high school because his favorite player was former Tampa Bay fullback Mike Alstott. “So as a freshman, he wanted to start varsity, and he didn’t care that there were kids that were maybe already committed to a college. He thought he was better than them as a freshman. So, just that competitive attitude, it’s, it’s incredible. And that’s what I think it’s going to be translated well for him at every level.”

Sawyer is so competitive that when one recruiting service bumped him from its top spot, even after he had already committed to Ohio State as Day’s first recruit in his first recruiting class, he was ticked off about the perceived slight.

“Yeah, I’m a competitor,” Sawyer said. “I think that if you play this game, you’ve got to always want to be the best. If not, you’re probably playing the wrong sport. So, for me, I’m always trying to be the best and anything I do, and really just, you know, attacking it and that stuff matters, you know, trying to be the best and working hard as you can to be that.”

That drive and work ethic showed up even when, in his junior season, Hillerich had to make Sawyer his emergency quarterback.

Pickerington North had one quarterback move away and then its starter got injured.

Hillerich turned to his star defensive lineman, who had seen some time as a tight end, to take over the team’s offense.

“It was fun,” Sawyer said of playing quarterback. “it was just something to do to help the team win. And I enjoyed it. But, you know, obviously you know, It was a defensive end and outside linebacker, so that was, that was very apparent. We ran a lot…