A year ago, Ohio State fans were asking whether Julian Sayin could step in for Will Howard and keep the Buckeyes rolling toward another national title. Now the question has changed.
It’s no longer about survival. It’s about ceiling.
Sayin arrived in Columbus after transferring from Alabama once Nick Saban announced his retirement, then spent 2024 backing up Howard and learning the offense. When his first college start came against Texas, it was about as steep a test as a quarterback can get.
The Longhorns were the No. 1 team in the country, and Sayin’s stat line wasn’t flashy. But in a 14-7 win, he did exactly what Ohio State needed: settle in, protect his confidence, and keep the Buckeyes on track before games against Grambling State and Ohio gave him room to pile up numbers.
Once the season opened up, Sayin’s production took off. As a redshirt freshman, he completed 77 percent of his passes for 3,610 yards, 32 touchdowns, and eight interceptions. He was named Big Ten Freshman of the Year, finished as a Heisman Trophy finalist, and placed fourth in the voting.
He also helped deliver one of the season’s biggest results for Ohio State, a 27-9 win over Michigan that ended a four-game losing streak in the rivalry. That mattered, even if the Buckeyes came up short of a Big Ten title and another national championship.
Still, Sayin’s first season wasn’t spotless. In Ohio State’s biggest games, against Indiana and Miami, he struggled to find his rhythm.
Over those two games, he completed 43 of 64 passes for 545 yards, two touchdowns, and three interceptions, and he was sacked 10 times. Those were the games that kept Ohio State from getting where it wanted to go.
There were also short-yardage issues. Sayin had trouble converting with his legs near the goal line against Michigan and Indiana.
That was a different look from what Buckeye Nation had gotten used to with Will Howard, who could lower his shoulder and move the chains when it mattered. Sayin is not that kind of quarterback, even if he is big and strong enough that he should not have much trouble getting a yard or two when needed.
That’s part of what makes the 2026 conversation so interesting. Sayin is being overlooked a bit, at least compared with some of the other quarterbacks getting more offseason buzz.
Dante Moore, Arch Manning, Trinidad Chambliss, and Darian Mensah are all drawing more attention right now. Sayin already has a win over Manning, and he’ll get his shot against Moore when Oregon comes to Columbus during the regular season.
He also won’t be carrying the offense alone. Jeremiah Smith, the best wide receiver in college football, is back, and Chris Henry Jr., the top freshman receiver in the country, joins him. Bo Jackson is in the backfield, and Ohio State’s offensive line returns a group of starters that has plenty to prove after an ugly finish to 2025.
The bigger shift this year is around Sayin himself. Last season, he inherited a defending national champion with leadership already in place from players like Caleb Downs, Sonny Styles, Jeremiah Smith, and others. This time, Downs, Styles, and several other key pieces are in the NFL, and Sayin will be asked to carry more of the leadership load.
The schedule is brutal, and nobody is pretending otherwise. But Sayin spent the offseason sharpening an already strong skill set, and he knows exactly what’s required if Ohio State is going to chase a national title again.
The talent is there. The supporting cast is there.
The next step is his.
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The difficult part of McMillans story was always the attrition, with injuries repeatedly interrupting his momentum and forcing him to keep rebuilding from scratch. After spending last season without a team, his latest post closed the book on a career that had plenty of stops but never quite the clean ending players and fans usually hope for. [Read more 🡒]