{"id":754870,"date":"2026-02-15T23:36:35","date_gmt":"2026-02-15T23:36:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/754870\/"},"modified":"2026-02-15T23:36:35","modified_gmt":"2026-02-15T23:36:35","slug":"former-ohio-state-star-zach-harrison-returns-home-to-columbus-during-falcons-offseason-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/754870\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Ohio State star Zach Harrison returns home to Columbus during Falcons offseason"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>COLUMBUS, Ohio (WSYX) \u2014 Former Ohio State <a href=\"https:\/\/abc6onyourside.com\/sports\/the-football-fever\/peach-bowl-parents-zach-harrisons-family-highlights-journey-in-scarlet-and-grey-osu-ohio-state-college-football-playoff-cfp-olentangy-orange\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"https:\/\/abc6onyourside.com\/sports\/the-football-fever\/peach-bowl-parents-zach-harrisons-family-highlights-journey-in-scarlet-and-grey-osu-ohio-state-college-football-playoff-cfp-olentangy-orange\" class=\"themeColorForLinks\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">defensive end Zach Harrison<\/a> gave up spring-like temperatures in Georgia for winter conditions in Columbus during his offseason. <\/p>\n<p>Harrison, an Olentangy Orange High School alum, finished his third year in the NFL with the Atlanta Falcons. And while he works in Atlanta, Columbus will always be his home. <\/p>\n<p> \u201cMy family\u2019s here,&#8221; he said. &#8220;I got Ohio State here, which is like a second family to me. I got connections here.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/abc6onyourside.com\/sports\/the-football-fever\/nfl-draft-former-buckeye-local-product-zach-harrison\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"https:\/\/abc6onyourside.com\/sports\/the-football-fever\/nfl-draft-former-buckeye-local-product-zach-harrison\" class=\"themeColorForLinks\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Harrison played four seasons at Ohio State<\/a>, and he said it has been special to share the NFL stage with former Buckeyes.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSeeing Jack (Sawyer), I remember when they came in as freshmen,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Seeing Jack, JT (Tuimoloau), Ty (Hamilton), Tyleik (Williams). I have all those jerseys now in my collection.  We learned together and grew together, and now being professionals together in the league is the coolest thing in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Harrison also pointed to the thrill of watching former teammates succeed at the highest level, including Jaxon Smith-Njigba winning a Super Bowl championship with the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was so, so cool to see somebody I know win a Super Bowl,&#8221; he said. &#8220;I know he works hard. He had a great season this year.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Back home in Ohio, Harrison said he took pride in what his high school program accomplished this past year, when Olentangy Orange won its first state football title.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was bragging so much in the locker room,&#8221; Harrison said about his former high school team. <\/p>\n<p>Harrison is also approaching the final year of his rookie contract and said he is focused on putting everything into the season.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI just want to make sure I remember earlier just leave everything out there,&#8221; he said. &#8220;So whatever happens, I can live with it. If I get another four-year contract, like great, I can live with it. If it doesn\u2019t happen, then I can live with that because I gave everything I had.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s really just kind of controlling the effort and let God control the outcome.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Harrison also joined ABC 6 Sports Director Dave Holmes on &#8220;The Script&#8221; podcast this week, discussing new Ohio State offensive coordinator Arthur Smith \u2014 Harrison\u2019s former head coach with the Falcons \u2014 along with NIL memories and more. <\/p>\n<p>The Script podcast is available on YouTube, Apple, Spotify, and other podcast platforms.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"COLUMBUS, Ohio (WSYX) \u2014 Former Ohio State defensive end Zach Harrison gave up spring-like temperatures in Georgia for&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":754871,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2074],"tags":[223,254,2554,1675,224,7,6,9609,1446,108009,505,11420],"class_list":{"0":"post-754870","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-atlanta-falcons","8":"tag-atlanta","9":"tag-atlanta-falcons","10":"tag-atlantafalcons","11":"tag-buckeyes","12":"tag-falcons","13":"tag-football","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-nil","16":"tag-ohio-state","17":"tag-olentangy-orange","18":"tag-super-bowl","19":"tag-zach-harrison"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116077277304932252","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/754870","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=754870"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/754870\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/754871"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=754870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=754870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=754870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}