Buckeyes DEs J.T. Tuimoloau, Jack Sawyer 'Feed Off One Another'

The Ohio State Buckeyes have a potentially lethal pass-rushing duo in J.T. Tuimoloau and Jack Sawyer and the two can complement each other in 2023.

The Ohio State Buckeyes landed their first five-star defensive line duo since 2016 in J.T. Tuimoloau and Jack Sawyer.

In their first two years in Columbus, the duo has combined for 14.5 sacks. With Sawyer returning to his natural defensive end position for his junior year, opposing offensive tackles will have to be ready for both bull rushes off the ends, which could lead to better sack numbers in 2023.

"I think we complement each other pretty well," Sawyer said. "J.T.'s a great player. He's strong, fast and I think having the guys on the inside really helps, too, with Mike (Hall), Tyleik (Williams), Jaden (McKenzie), the young guys. The young interior's playing really well, so as a whole D-line, we're all playing complementary football."

Tuimoloau said he and Sawyer have the same "energy."

"I see him on that end and we just feed off one another," Tuimoloau said. "When he's hype, I'm hype. That's just how the whole D-line works."

The last five-star duo to come to Columbus was Nick Bosa and Jonathon Cooper. Both went to the NFL and Bosa already has a Defensive Player of the Year award in his trophy case, but their college careers did not exactly turn out as recruiting analysts projected.

Bosa had 17.5 sacks in his 29-game Buckeye career and was well on his way to having a monster junior season, collecting four sacks in three games. However, a core injury cut his 2018 campaign short and he departed for the NFL where he was a No. 2 overall pick.

Cooper never found consistent playing time in his five seasons in Columbus, as the Block "O" jersey recipient in 2020 finished his 37-game Ohio State career with 10 sacks.

Sawyer received a player comparison to Bosa and Tuimoloau was projected to be like former Buckeye great Cameron Heyward. However, it feels like the duo has yet to find a groove of game-wrecking dominance. Tuimoloau tapped into that against Penn State when he had six tackles, three for loss, two sacks, two interceptions, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery.

It's not realistic to expect that every game, but Tuimoloau showed the potential is there. Sawyer has yet to put that on display and, again, a byproduct could be he was learning a new position last year instead of sticking to what he was used to.

Sawyer said while it's easy to think about expectations and what the duo could have been capable of coming out of high school, he and Tuimoloau are focused on the here and now.

"Me and J.T. and a lot of guys on defense talked right before fall camp, the summer, we just all came to the conclusion we need to focus on the day," Sawyer said. "We can't let what we want to be or what we want to achieve personally or doing this or doing that affect the day that we're in right now. 

"Every day we just got to be the best version of ourselves and get better. Coach Day calls it finding the 1 percent, so find the 1 percent to get better every day and before you know when you look up, you'll accomplish all those things."

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