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Julian Sayin shines, but don’t sleep on Lincoln Kienholz in Ohio State’s QB battle just yet
By Paul Harvey
Published:
Ohio State finds itself yet in another offseason quarterback battle, this time pitting former 5-star prospect Julian Sayin against 3rd-year QB and former 4-star recruit Lincoln Kienholz. Those 2 players are fighting for the starting job under Ryan Day, with Will Howard leading the Buckeyes to the national title before departing for the NFL.
On Saturday, the program hit Ohio Stadium for the spring game, and the status of the quarterback unit was on full display. That was evidenced by 65 total pass plays called and spread between Sayin, Kienholz and 5-star freshman Tavien St. Clair.
After the completion of the spring game, Day admitted it was by design to test the quarterback group throughout the session. Ohio State has youth across the board this year, but it’s most glaring at QB, and the point was to see how the unit responded.
“You can see it was a fairly significant emphasis on throwing the ball to see how the quarterbacks were going to respond,” Day explained.
Of course, Day is not about to tip his hand as to where the quarterback battle stands at this point. Part of that is undeniably strategic.
The spring transfer portal window opens this week, and the drama at Tennessee opens up a need for a power program built to compete right away at the QB spot. Nico Iamaleava will be on the move, and the flip side of that is the Vols will be looking for a plug-and-play starter in the portal.
However, the expectation all along has been that Sayin was the QB in waiting behind Howard, and that was only furthered immediately after the season. Devin Brown, a longtime backup for the Buckeyes, quickly departed in the portal after serving as the main backup during the 2023 and 2024 seasons.
And, by all counts, Sayin looked the part on Saturday, especially early on. The redshirt freshman settled in quickly, leading a pair of back-to-back touchdown drives early on, including one against the first-team defense.
It wasn’t just one area for Sayin. He showed some quick decision-making on throws over the middle of the field, linked up with some nice tight window throws on the sideline, and his lone touchdown of the day was a thing of beauty.
The touchdown went to new tight end Max Klare running down the seam in the middle of the field. Sayin split the coverage perfectly in a throw reminiscent of Will Howard’s touchdown toss to Emeka Egbuka in the Rose Bowl.
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Sayin ended the session with an unofficial 17-for-24 effort with 175 yards, the most of any of the 3 QBs in action, and the touchdown. The only drawback was Sayin taking 3 sacks, though the sack rules of being touched whistling the play dead played a role here.
Based on what we saw, it feels safe to pencil Sayin in as the leader in the unit coming out of the spring. However, Kienholz, who patiently waited for an opportunity in Columbus, is not fading into the night here.
The former 4-star recruit, who has attempted just 22 regular-season passes thus far, was similarly efficient while going 12-for-18 with 158 yards and 2 touchdowns in the spring game. Kienholz only took one sack on Saturday and a long pass play of 51 yards.
Meanwhile, St. Clair was given his own opportunity to make plays, and he responded with an 11-for-15 effort with 116 yards and a touchdown just before the end of the spring game.
The drawback for St. Clair, though, was obvious with the young freshman tossing a pair of early interceptions, and both looked like regrettable decisions when the ball left his hand. In some aspects, that is to be expected from an especially green player, but the talent still popped at times as a player for the future.
So, where does that leave us hitting the summer? Day reiterated the idea that Kienholz settled in, but his strongest comments were reserved for Sayin for his early rhythm.
“Yeah. I felt like Lincoln settled down after the first drive or so and made some nice throws. But I thought Julian, for the most part, early on was in rhythm and moved the team down the field for a couple touchdowns, which was good,” said Day. “Made some nice throws. There’s certainly a lot to grow from and this is why we did this.”
Sayin, as expected, looks like the leader right now, but don’t sleep on Kienholz after what we’ve seen in the early portion of the offseason. Either way, all signs point to some elite talent for Day to tinker with yet again in Columbus.
(H/T 247 Sports)
Paul is a lifelong fan and student of all things college football. He has been covering college football since 2017 and the B1G since 2018.