Kenyatta Jackson Finding His Voice As Leader Of The Rushmen

Ohio State didn’t have to look hard to find a leader on the defensive line last year. They had four senior starters in Jack Sawyer, JT Tuimoloau, Ty Hamilton, and Tyleik Williams. All part of the collective defensive line unit known as “the Rushmen.”

Together, the quartet played in a combined 218 games for the Buckeyes. To say they’ve seen everything would undersell the everything they’d seen.

If a teammate — be it on the defensive line or anywhere else — had a question, they could go to any of the four and get direction. One of those teammates who received direction whenever he needed it was defensive end Kenyatta Jackson, who is now a redshirt junior and paying it forward as a leader for the 2025 Ohio State football team.

How is the promotion going?

“I think I’ve done pretty well,” Jackson said back in the spring. “The guys are buying in to it. Obviously we lost four good leaders and four good players, so I’m just trying to take pieces by pieces by pieces by pieces from them. Just continue that tradition of the Rushmen.”

What were some of those pieces from Sawyer and Tuimoloau?

“Just stay consistent,” he said. “There’s different leaders. You’ve got the vocal leader, you’ve got the leader that sets by example. There are different personalities in the group. I can’t talk to Eddrick [Houston] how I talk to Caden Curry. I can’t talk to Caden Curry how I talk to Kayden McDonald. So, it’s just stay consistent, stay positive, and everything will take care of itself.”

Jackson has yet to start a game as a Buckeye. His best year came last year as a redshirt sophomore when he posted 16 tackles, 3.0 tackles for loss, and 1.5 sacks.

Despite the modest numbers, Jackson was pointed to by departed teammates as the guy who would step up on the defensive line this year and lead this edition of the Rushmen.

It was a role that Jackson had been preparing for, but it still caught him a little off guard when the day finally came.

“I’ll say it totally feels different,” he said of his new responsibilities. “It really didn’t hit me until the first practice of spring, but it feels good.”

It has been a long time coming for Kenyatta Jackson, who redshirted as a true freshman after enrolling in June of 2022. Each of the past two seasons has seen him finish third in snaps at defensive end behind Tuimoloau and Sawyer.

His snaps are about to go way up this year as he finally gets to show everything he can do and the player he can be.

Asked if his patience has finally paid off, Jackson gave an interesting answer.

“I wouldn’t say I’ve paid off yet,” he admitted. “I really haven’t done anything yet. But God has a path for everybody and He’s paving my path right now, so I’m just letting Him control and pave my path right now.”

There were times early in his career when rumors swirled that maybe a transfer was possible. Sawyer and Tuimoloau were essentially roadblocks to playing time. Being a Buckeye can be hard enough when playing time is plentiful, let alone when a player’s expectations aren’t being met in any number of ways.

Eventually, however, Jackson came to the conclusion that he was on this path for a reason.

“I want to say after sophomore year,” he explained. “It was a lot of ups and downs, and even this past year it was a lot of ups and downs, but mainly from last year it was just a lot of ups. I just let Him control everything. I tend to overthink and want to control things myself, but that’s not how God works. Like I said, God has a path for everybody and He’s paving my path.”

That path now has Kenyatta Jackson as one of the leaders of a defense that is replacing eight starters and eight leaders. And all of this with the same championship expectations that they had a year ago.

There is still a standard to uphold, after all. And it’s one that Jackson and his teammates embraced long ago.

“Everybody’s working,” Jackson said. “We lost a lot of good players. A lot of good leaders, man. But the guys that are stepping up, we’ve just got to step up and take on what the guys left for us. That’s pretty much it.”

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