COLUMBUS, Ohio — At Ohio State, national championships matter. Big Ten championships matter. Beating Michigan matters.

Sometimes a bowl game that doesn’t get the Buckeyes a title can be overlooked by fans or media members. That’s not the case inside the program with this year’s Cotton Bowl against Missouri.

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Defensive end Jack Sawyer said any idea that this bowl game doesn’t matter is “bulls—. This game means a lot to us.”

That can be taken as cliche player and coach speak. Every game is supposed to be important, but it seems Ohio State’s players mean it.

On Tuesday, 11 players met with the media to preview the game. Many of them have a decision to make regarding their futures at Ohio State or in the NFL, but all of them will play in the Cotton Bowl. Sawyer and fellow underclassmen Emeka Egbuka, Denzel Burke, Donovan Jackson, Jordan Hancock and Tyleik Williams said they will play in the game despite not having decided on whether they’ll go pro.

In an era when opting out of bowl games to prepare for the NFL Draft is common practice and makes sense to prevent injury or any loss of draft stock, many of Ohio State’s players are all in on the bowl game.

Why? It’s simple. Winning on Dec. 29 against the Tigers is important.

“We worked so hard for this season. Why not end it on a good note?” Williams said. “We don’t want to end on a loss. … We don’t want to end it on a bad note for next season, whether you’re coming back or not.”

It’s a big game for new starting quarterback Devin Brown, who lost the offseason quarterback battle to Kyle McCord. But with McCord already in the transfer portal, Brown will get the start against Missouri.

“It’s going to be a coming-out party and a good opportunity for me to show what I can do in this game,” Brown said.

The morning the portal opens is a chaotic time in college football, but it got off to an unprecedented start when McCord entered the portal. News broke before 7 a.m. ET, on Dec. 4, and immediately Ohio State looked to the future.

The next day, Brown took to X, formerly Twitter, and posted a picture of ships burning in the water. It was a reference to explorer Hernan Cortes, who burned his ships to make sure his men couldn’t go back after arriving in the new world.

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It was another way for Brown to say he’s ready to go. He emphasized that Tuesday.

“My focus is being the starting quarterback at Ohio State,” Brown said. “I never cared about who is in the room or anybody that is coming. One of the main reasons for the burn-the-boat thing was that I don’t. I’m going to compete and do what I can do.”

It’s a bittersweet moment for Brown, who had a close relationship with McCord despite battling for the starting job with him all offseason. But Brown is excited to earn his first start in the Cotton Bowl.

This will be a pivotal game for the future of the Ohio State program. With McCord in the portal and Ohio State not highly focused on any quarterback in the portal, it’s a chance for Brown to show what he can do if he is the starter next season. And he can calm any concerns from the fan base about the biggest question mark entering the offseason.

Behind the scenes, players and coaches have liked what Brown was doing this year, even if he wasn’t on the field. Coach Ryan Day liked it enough to find a way to get him on the field, installing a red zone package with Brown at quarterback at Purdue in the middle of the season. Brown hurt his ankle in that game, and Ohio State never got back to the package, as Brown nursed the ankle injury for much of the season.

“I felt like that package was growing and growing,” Brown said.

Instead, Brown had to wait his turn. He’s 100 percent now, but that wasn’t the first time he experienced adversity in the past year. He missed the spring game after a thumb injury suffered just a week before the end of the practices, then lost the quarterback battle and had to watch from the sideline for much of the season.

Still, he made it a priority to remain locked in.

“I treated every week like I was the starter and was going to play in the game. Whether I was watching film with coach (Todd) Fitch or Tristan (Gebbia), I treated it like I was going to be the guy,” Brown said. “It’s hard to know that it’s not going to be the payout that you want it to be, but you never know what’s going to happen. It could be a situation when Kyle gets hurt and I have to be back in there.”

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That situation is here, sort of.

McCord isn’t hurt. He’s no longer with the program, and Brown has to step in after McCord’s surprise departure. Brown will take the field with a strong batch of weapons alongside him.

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The Cotton Bowl seemed like it could’ve been a repeat of the 2021 Rose Bowl when Chris Olave and Garrett Wilson opted out to prepare for the draft. That’s not completely happening.

Brown’s excited to get the chance to throw the ball to Egbuka, who is a potential first-round pick, and Donovan Jackson. They haven’t announced their plans for the draft but said they will play in the bowl game.

“I feel like every chance you get to step on the field is something you shouldn’t take for granted,” Egbuka said.

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That seems to be the thought coming through most of the team, especially the 2021 class. Players such as Sawyer, Egbuka, Burke, Williams and Jackson are in line with the belief they can’t end the season with a loss to Michigan.

Announcements are still to come from players like Marvin Harrison Jr., JT Tuimoloau, TreVeyon Henderson, Cade Stover and Tommy Eichenberg, but it seems like many of Ohio State’s impact players will be on the field against Missouri.

(Top photo of Jack Sawyer: Ian Johnson / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)