Ohio State's Ryan Day Reveals How Lincoln Kienholz Reacted To Starting QB News

The No. 3 Ohio State Buckeyes have their starting quarterback. It was a tough battle and a close contest, but head coach Ryan Day announced on Monday that redshirt freshman Julian Sayin beat out redshirt sophomore Lincoln Kienholz for the starting gig.

Sayin is going to be the starter against No. 1 Texas on August 30, though Day revealed that the Buckeyes have confidence in both quarterbacks moving forward.

"Julian Sayin will be the starting quarterback against Texas," Day said, according to Steve Helwagen of 247Sports. "It was a close competition. I think both guys, we all feel confident, can win a game for us. I think Julian separated himself really over the last week with his consistent play."

Sayin is going to get a chance to prove himself on a huge stage. Not only is this a rematch of the Texas-OSU game from the College Football Playoff last season — a game the Buckeyes won, 28-14 in the Cotton Bowl — but this is a chance for the Buckeyes to prove that, as the defending national champions, they should have been ranked No. 1 in the preseason rather than the Longhorns

A former 5-star quarterback from Carlsbad, California, Sayin is Ohio State's quarterback, but Day was clear that he believes Kienholz will get snaps this season as well. To be clear, OSU isn't going to be running a two-quarterback system, but one gets the sense that Day can see chances in the future for the backup.

Whether those opportunities will come in mop-up time against teams like Grambling or Ohio, or in injury relief, remains to be seen.

"I think we'll need both quarterbacks," Day said. "Lincoln did a lot of great things, but we're going to name Julian the starter here, give him the majority of the reps with the ones, and go prepare to beat Texas."

Kienholz is a former highly-ranked quarterback himself, so this has to be a disappointing outcome for him. Day did say that the South Dakota product did take the news in stride, though.

"He was great in the meeting that we talked about [it in]," Day explained. "He knows in his heart he's going to play this year, and so he's going to prepare to play in the first game, and we know it's a long season. He's a competitor."

Being second-string is a tough place to be for a competitor, so it will be interesting to see if Kienholz accepts his fate in this era when the transfer portal is essentially always open. If he believes he should be "the guy", nothing is stopping him from going to be the starter elsewhere.

In the meantime, though, Kienholz can be a leader for OSU. You also never know how things will change throughout the campaign.

"The team knows that we're going to need him, and he knows," Day said. "Again, I thought that was excellent leadership on his end, and it's a long season."