Ohio State’s quarterback picture has shifted fast, and Tavien St. Clair is the one feeling the squeeze.
For most of the last four years, the Buckeyes built toward a future with St. Clair as the starter.
That future never arrived. Instead, he’s now the backup behind true freshman Luke Fahey, who stepped in to replace injured Julian Sayin for the rest of the season.
That turn didn’t happen overnight. It had been building for nine months behind the scenes before becoming public in August.
The path to this point started when St. Clair picked Ohio State in June of 2023, the summer before his junior year of high school. At the time, the idea was clear enough: he would grow into the job and eventually lead the offense.
Being QB3 in 2025 was one thing, even if it only amounted to 13 snaps, all of them against Grambling State. But this season was supposed to be different.
St. Clair was expected to be QB2, ready if the Buckeyes needed him and positioned as the next name in line if Sayin eventually moved on to the NFL.
Fahey changed that. He moved ahead of St. Clair on the depth chart before Sayin was hurt, then kept the job once the injury opened the door.
That leaves Ohio State with a lot of questions. What if Fahey plays so well that he becomes the answer not just for the rest of this season, but for 2027?
What if Sayin comes back? What if he doesn’t?
And what if the whole thing goes sideways and the Buckeyes are hunting for a quarterback in the portal in January?
There’s another question now, too: Are these the last days of St. Clair being a Buckeye?
It’s not the cleanest conversation to have while Ohio State’s championship hopes are still alive, and it’s not exactly fair to St. Clair either.
But it’s the reality of the position. Quarterbacks want to play, especially the highly recruited ones, and there will always be a program ready to offer that chance.
A 6-foot-4, 235-pound former five-star quarterback who has spent two years developing at Ohio State is going to draw interest somewhere.
Ryan Day first floated the possibility that someone other than St. Clair could be the backup at Big Ten Media Days, and it was easy enough then to file away and revisit later. He brought it up again during fall camp after Fahey lost his black stripe, and that made the situation harder to ignore.
Then Fahey took the field first against Ball State, and the long-held idea of St. Clair as the homegrown successor took a real hit.
Now, with Fahey set to take the field tonight against USC, the direction feels even clearer. Four years of investment have not produced the quarterback Ohio State once expected to have when the chance finally came.
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