Analyst Exposes Concerning Update on Ohio State's Julian Sayin

The Ohio State Buckeyes entered spring practice knowing they needed to find a new answer at quarterback, as national championship hero Will Howard made the jump to the NFL.

It didn't appear to be much of a problem initially, as former five-star recruit Julian Sayin was widely viewed as the favorite to win the starting job. Heck, it was actually exciting, as Sayin was even drawing Heisman Trophy consideration right off the bat.

But apparently, Sayin is experiencing some growing pains, and ESPN's Greg McElroy provided a troublesome update concerning the youngster this week.

"A lot of us coming into the spring season were under the assumption that it was going to be Julian Sayin. Well, by all accounts, that’s not really the way it’s working out right now," McElroy said on the Always College Football podcast. "Julian Sayin, by all accounts, did not have a great scrimmage last week. It sounds like he kind of struggled on Saturday."

Okay. Struggling in one scrimmage is no big deal, right? Well, evidently, it runs deeper than that for Sayin, who is completing with Lincoln Kienholz and Tavien St. Clair for the position.

“That doesn’t mean you need to freak out, but it is the first extended scrimmage of the spring, and the expectation level of Julian Sayin was nowhere near what we ended up getting, and that’s a little bit concerning," McElroy continued.

He added that Kienholz—who is now preparing to enter his junior season—had a "pretty consistent day," so perhaps Sayin is not the runaway favorite to win the job, after all.

Sayin is a redshirt freshman who threw just 12 passes in 2024, so he is vastly unproven in spite of his immense talent. McElroy seems to think that he needs to clean up his act rather quickly, so we'll see what becomes of the youngster in the coming weeks.

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