Ohio State is coming off a Nationwide Championship final season, however they don’t anticipate a championship hangover. But when the Buckeyes are to make one other deep playoff run in 2025, it’ll imply they obtain good manufacturing from their new beginning quarterback. Nonetheless, OSU hasn’t named their QB1 but, and so they’re almost a month away from the common season
Ohio State had Will Howard at quarterback final season, a participant who was integral of their championship run and put up elite numbers (4,010 passing yards, 35 passing touchdowns, 10 interceptions, and a 73 p.c completion price). Howard is now within the NFL with the Pittsburgh Steelers, and Ohio State will flip to both Julian Sayin or Lincoln Kienholz.
The Buckeyes might be going from a participant in Howard who began 44 collegiate video games to both Sayin or Kienholz, who’ve each but to start out a school recreation. Sayin transferred from Alabama as an early enrollee after the retirement of Nick Saban in January of 2024 and dedicated to Ohio State two days later. Sayin is 5-of-12 in his profession for 84 yards with one landing. Kienholz is getting into his third season at Ohio State and is 5-of-10 for 111 yards.
Whereas expertise is at all times optimum on the quarterback place, these are the playing cards Ohio State has, and head coach Ryan Day spoke at Large Ten Media Day in Las Vegas about the place the quarterback competitors presently stands.
“We’re going to place them in as many aggressive conditions as we presumably can to determine who handles that the most effective,” Day stated on Tuesday. We’ve bought to be on level week one. We will’t be messing round.”
Day gave optimistic ideas on each Sayin and Kienholz, however didn’t present his hand so far as which participant has a better likelihood of beginning.
“Julian definitely can get the ball out shortly. He’s had a fantastic offseason. He’s clever,” Day stated. “He’s very aggressive, he’s bought good athleticism, he’s correct. Lincoln is simply an unbelievable athlete. Choose a sport and he can do it.”
Day went on to say that it’ll be a “fierce competitors” and he has been receiving good suggestions from OSU receivers about Sayin and Kienholz and that “they like each of them”.
Ohio State huge receiver Jeremiah Smith, arguably the most effective WR within the nation, spoke at Large Ten Media Day about Sayin and Kienholz and stated, “each of them are nice” and that they “have all of the instruments”. Smith additionally mentioned what stands out probably the most about each gamers.
“Their management, the way in which they take command within the huddle,” Smith stated. “Each type of the identical method to me. They’re each athletic, each can run.”
Day is acutely conscious that Ohio State can’t be messing round at QB, largely due to who their opponent is in Week 1 — the Texas Longhorns. The 2 elite packages squared off final season within the School Soccer Playoff Semifinal on the Cotton Bowl, a 28-14 Ohio State victory wherein they scored 14 unanswered factors within the fourth quarter. Day desires each Sayin and Kienholz to really feel stress between now and the common season, believing that stress will make all of them the extra ready as soon as the video games begin to rely.
“As a lot (stress) as doable. That stress began an extended whereas in the past, by me for positive. That’s the way you do it, after which you’ll be able to construct their confidence as you go. You gotta present that stress so that they perceive what comes with being the quarterback at Ohio State,” Day defined. “It’s our job to make apply more durable than the sport and put them in recreation conditions and see how they reply.”
Day stated that he by no means has a really feel for when the time is to announce a beginning quarterback, however famous that when the locker room believes in a quarterback, he considers it “the best time”.
“We’ll see the place this goes. All the things that they do in July, in June, in Could has led as much as the place we’re proper now, however they gotta go do it on the sphere,” Day stated.
Regardless of Ohio State not having a clear-cut QB1 for the time being, the expectation is that they’ll be within the Nationwide Championship dialog come December and January. Per FanDuel Sportsbook, the Buckeyes are tied with Georgia for the second-best odds of profitable the Nationwide Championship at +650.
