Ohio State's Julian Sayin finishes 2025 regular season with historic record

Not many believed that Julian Sayin could keep it up.

From the start of the 2025 season, Sayin was slinging the rock at an impressive rate. He was taking deep shots, finding little passing lanes to fit the ball into, passing on the run and through it all, was tossing very few incompletions.

In Saturday's 27-9 victory over the Michigan Wolverines, Sayin kept that pace of play up, tossing for 233 yards and three touchdowns. While he did throw one interception, it was just fifth of the season, and he only recorded seven incompletions.

That low volume of missed passes is something he's come to know in 2025.

After 12 weeks of play, he now owns the No. 1 completion percentage in a season in college football's storied history, coming in at a mark of 78.9%.

He beat out the previous No. 1 spot, held by former Oregon Duck Bo Nix and Alabama's Mac Jones, by 1.5%. The two had ahold of the best completion percentage for just two years (Nix) and five years (Jones).

For a quarterback like Sayin, who did it in his first season starting, says a lot about his skill level.

Back in Ohio State's second game of the season, the Buckeyes dominated Grambling State in a 70-0 win. Sayin completed 94.7% of his passes, going 18-of-19 for 406 yards and four touchdowns. His nack for finding the open receiver nearly gave him the Buckeyes' record for consecutive completions, falling just one short.

Just a few weeks ago against Penn State, Sayin showed that locked-in passing style.

He completed 20 passes while throwing just three incompletions, good enough for a 87% completion mark, 316 yards and four touchdowns.

Through his first season as a starting quarterback at a national championship-contending program, he's completed over 80% of his passes in five games, over 75% in seven and over 70% in all but two.

He's also only thrown under 20 passes in a game twice.

It's obvious that the Buckeyes' offense runs through Sayin. He has plenty of help from a barrage of running backs that have broken out throughout the season and an elite group of wide receivers who are projected to be first-round picks in the NFL Draft, but his leadership is what has brought this team above the rest in the country.

Against the Wolverines this past weekend, in what was the biggest game of his life so far, he showed up and thrived. There were some bumps in the road that occurred, but he welcomed the challenges.

“We knew there was gonna be adversity," said Sayin. "We weren’t gonna let it faze us. Adversity came on the second play of the game. We got to keep battling. I think as an offense that’s our whole mindset, just keep battling.”

Sayin will look to continue controlling the offense and leading the Buckeyes in the postseason.

The team's next test of high-stress, late-year play will come up against the undefeated Indiana Hoosiers in the Big Ten championship. The Buckeyes and Hoosiers will square off against one another from Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, with kickoff set for a late 8:00 p.m.

Sayin will have to be on top of his game as he goes up against the only other player realistically contesting him for the 2025 Heisman trophy: Fernando Mendoza.