Ohio State football names Julian Sayin as its starting quarterback

Ohio State has named Julian Sayin its starting quarterback.

Coach Ryan Day made the announcement on Aug. 18, putting the redshirt freshman from Southern California in line to be behind center when the Buckeyes open their season against top-ranked Texas in less than two weeks.

Sayin beat out redshirt sophomore Lincoln Kienholz for the starting job in a position battle that began in spring practice and continued throughout most of preseason training camp.

Day said Sayin separated himself over the last week of practices, which included a scrimmage over the weekend.

“You look at the numbers and production, we felt like he was in a situation where he was ready to go play in this game,” Day said. “We also felt like Lincoln’s ready to play. But overall, Julian was more consistent.”

Added offensive coordinator Brian Hartline, “It’s the body of work. It’s not one play here, one play there.”

Day met with both of the quarterbacks earlier in the morning to inform them of the decision.

“As you can imagine, we talked about winning this first game,” Day said, “being the best quarterback room in the country, taking care of the ball, making the routine plays routinely, and we got to prepare like heck to win a monster game.”

The timing of the announcement follows a familiar pattern for Day, who has settled all but one of the quarterback competitions in his tenure around two weeks before the season opener. Justin Fields and C.J. Stroud were also named the starter 12 days ahead of Ohio State’s first game in 2019 and 2021, respectively.