Michael Cohen
College Football and College Basketball Writer
From the moment former five-star prospect Julian Sayin committed to Ohio State on Jan. 19, 2024, just two days after he entered the transfer portal following the shocking retirement of Alabama head coach Nick Saban, there was a widespread presumption about how the remainder of his career with the Buckeyes would unfold.
Julian Sayin, #10 of the Ohio State Buckeyes, jogs out for fall camp at Woody Hayes Athletic Center. (Photo by Jason Mowry/Getty Images)
Sayin, who was the highest-rated quarterback in the country coming out of high school, would spend his true freshman season learning and developing behind Will Howard, an experience that wound up providing the youngster a front-row seat to the national championship. From there, Sayin was expected to wrest control of the starting job in 2025 and keep it for however long he remained in Columbus before vaulting to the NFL, handing the keys to Tavien St. Clair — the program’s next blue-chip quarterback — on his way out the door.
For those who subscribed to this succession plan, it didn’t matter that the Buckeyes had previously signed another ballyhooed quarterback from the same recruiting cycle in four-star prospect Air Noland, the No. 56 overall player and No. 4 signal-caller in the country. Nor were they deterred by the existence of Lincoln Kienholz, a developing veteran who had already spent multiple years in Ohio State’s system, learning the ins and outs of playing for head coach Ryan Day. Those were little more than footnotes in a strongly worded thesis that vehemently believed Sayin was next in line — period.
Shortly after 11:30 a.m. on Monday, with fewer than two weeks remaining until third-ranked Ohio State hosts top-ranked Texas in one of the most anticipated season openers in recent memory (Noon ET, Aug. 30 on FOX), Day proved those droves of prognosticators correct when he announced that Sayin, a true sophomore, would be the team’s starting quarterback. The competition between Sayin and Kienholz, a former four-star prospect in his own right, dragged on a touch longer than most people anticipated given the lofty expectations that have surrounded the former for several years, particularly after he was named Most Valuable Player at the Elite 11 Finals two summers ago.
But in the end, when it came time for Day to decide which quarterback should spearhead the Buckeyes’ defense of their national title, he chose the player for whom this opportunity has always felt somewhat preordained. And in doing so, Day perpetuated the most en vogue trend of modern college football wherein the shiny transfer quarterback almost always trumps the in-house options.
“In a perfect world,” Day said at his news conference, “we would love to recruit high school players, develop them in the program for a few years and then watch them grow and build. But there’s no time to play the game, to mess around. I mean, you’ve gotta win now. So the best players play, and that’s how we look at it. We want to make sure we’re recruiting the best players in the country and developing them and retaining them, because that’s how you keep a culture in place. But you win games right now by playing the best players, so that’s the balance that you need to find.”
Quarterback Julian Sayin, #10 of the Ohio State Buckeyes, runs with the ball during the fourth quarter against Purdue. (Photo by Ben Jackson/Getty Images)
To most observers of Ohio State’s program, it seemed inevitable that Sayin’s pure talent would eventually prevail, especially considering how the career arcs of both quarterbacks had been framed by Day and other members of the coaching staff dating back to the spring of 2024, shortly after Sayin arrived from Alabama. A native of Carlsbad, California, which is less than an hour north of San Diego, Sayin has always been viewed as the prototypical West Coast quarterback, the kind of player with a sweet release and effortless control to complement his flowing mane of surfer-esque locks. He was ranked as a top-15 player in the country regardless of position from March 2022, when he entered the 247Sports Composite rankings at No. 5 overall, all the way through the conclusion of his high school career. And along the way, Sayin threw for 7,824 yards with 85 touchdowns and only 10 interceptions as a three-year starter.
Eventually, he surpassed Florida commit DJ Lagway and Nebraska commit Dylan Raiola to become the No. 1 quarterback in the country before enrolling early at Alabama in January 2024.
The brevity of Sayin’s stint with the Crimson Tide — he entered the portal less than two weeks after classes began — meant that he was essentially just as green as Ohio State’s other high school signees by the time he got to Columbus in late January. And while Sayin (6-foot-1, 203 pounds last year) was noticeably shorter and skinnier than the statuesque Howard, who measured 6-4 and 236 pounds at the NFL Scouting Combine earlier this year, it didn’t take long for the freshman to impress with his lightning-quick delivery and pinpoint accuracy as a traditional pocket passer. Chip Kelly, who was the Buckeyes’ offensive coordinator at the time, lauded Sayin last spring for being a “very fast processor” of all the different looks and wrinkles thrown at him during practice. That description was echoed by new Ohio State defensive coordinator Matt Patricia earlier this week when asked about Sayin being named the starter.
“It was really what I saw in decision-making when I’m showing different looks or having different coverages,” Patricia said, “or [when] Estamos passando por práticas sem scripts, você sabe, para onde as coisas vão se mover em um ritmo diferente. Sendo capaz de lidar com o ritmo da ofensa e coisas assim, os ajustes da Huddle na linha de scrimmage, sabe? Nós meio que jogamos um monte de coisas diferentes neles. E eu acho que o equilíbrio dele, sua capacidade de ver a defesa e depois tomar decisões muito rápidas [was a step ahead].
“Lincoln também é um grande atleta. Ele fez um ótimo trabalho contra nós, obviamente. Mas Julian, eu acho, apenas sua capacidade de ver a defesa, tomar uma decisão e tirar a bola rápida, acho que essa é uma das coisas que você deseja em um zagueiro que está chegando lá em um grande palco em um grande jogo aqui”.
Talvez, sem saber, Patricia, que ingressou nos Buckeyes em fevereiro, apresentou o que é indiscutivelmente o somatório perfeito de como a Day & Co. sempre assistiu à competição de zagueiro deste ano entre Sayin, The Natural e Kienholz, o atleta. Onde Sayin passou grande parte de sua educação e carreira no ensino médio dedicada a jogar futebol em tempo integral, um luxo oferecido a ele no clima quente do sul da Califórnia, Kienholz permaneceu uma impressionante estrela de três esportes durante seus últimos dias na TF Riggs High School, em Pierre, South Dakota.
Como zagueiro, Kieholz jogou 9.100 jardas e 104 touchdowns em três anos para se tornar o líder de todos os tempos do estado. Como jogador de basquete, ele teve uma média de 19,9 pontos e 7,3 rebotes por jogo durante seu primeiro ano para ganhar as honras de todos os estados da primeira equipe. Alguns meses depois, no diamante de beisebol, ele atingiu 0,472 com seis home runs e foi 3-0 com um ERA de 1,24 como arremessador de destaque. Ele estava originalmente comprometido com Washington antes de passar para o estado de Ohio em 14 de dezembro de 2022.
A decisão de Kienholz de completar suas temporadas sênior de basquete e beisebol em Dakota do Sul, em vez de se matricular no início do estado de Ohio, rapidamente se tornou uma das histórias definidoras de sua carreira colegiada. Day lembrou aos repórteres repetidamente que Kienholz, agora júnior, era meio ano mais novo que alguns de seus colegas de classe em termos de tempo gasto no programa dos Buckeyes e vários anos mais jovens em desenvolvimento posicional do que outros zagueiros que se concentraram apenas no futebol. Kienholz, ao contrário de Sayin, quase sempre foi descrito como um excelente atleta ainda aprendendo os pontos mais delicados de jogar quarterback. E quando os colegas de equipe foram convidados a diferenciar entre ele e Sayin nos últimos meses, quase todos eles mencionaram a mobilidade de Kieholz antes de falar sobre seu braço.
“Lincoln realmente fez ótimas coisas”, disse Day. “As you guys know, he’s a tremendous athlete. He’s only still scratching the surface on what he can be. And so he’s going to continue to grow. And I think he knows that. I think when you get around him, you’ll feel that. If it was a quarterback who had been around football his entire life and he was kind of tapped out and hit a ceiling, he’d be more frustrated [with the outcome of this year’s quarterback competition]. Eu acho que ele sabe que ainda tem muita pista aqui para sua carreira. Então ele está crescendo e melhorando a cada dia. Você pode ver. “
Julian Sayin #10 e Lincoln Kienholz #3 do estado de Ohio Buckeyes praticam uma broca durante o acampamento de outono no Woody Hayes Athletic Center. (Foto de Jason Mowry/Getty Images)
Dadas as habilidades contrastantes entre Sayin e Kieholz, é bem possível que os Buckeyes possam encontrar maneiras de utilizar o último como uma ameaça em determinados pacotes neste outono, assim como eles tentaram com o ex-quarterback Devin Brown em 2024. Há também uma lacuna clara entre Kienholz e St. Clair, o calouro de cinco estrelas, para o trabalho de reserva.
Mas a unção de Sayin, pois o iniciante dos Buckeyes garante que haverá cada vez menos repetições que chegam a Kienholz nos próximos meses, uma pílula difícil de engolir para um jogador cuja carreira colegial está mais da metade do caminho. A pressão inflexível do esporte para vencer torna a vida como um quarterback de desenvolvimento mais difícil do que nunca.
“Obviamente, queremos alguém que possa passar a bola e ter precisão inata”, disse Day. “Isso certamente é algo que tem que acontecer.”
Michael Cohen Cubra o futebol universitário e o basquete universitário da Fox Sports. Siga -o em @Michael_Cohen13.
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