The Ohio State Buckeyes outlasted the Indiana Hoosiers on Saturday in a top-10 clash in the Big Ten. Unfortunately for the Buckeyes, it proved to be a costly victory, with the Buckeyes’ starting quarterback and former Heisman Trophy finalist Julian Sayin going down in the game with an injury to his throwing side.
Ohio State head coach Ryan Day announced after the game that Sayin would be out “several weeks,” and on Monday, he gave the first official update since Saturday, and what he added wasn’t great.
“It’ll be at least several weeks,” Day said on the Buckeye Roundtable radio show, at slight tweak from his verbiage after the game. “No update right now. They’re still going through testing and meetings.”
The Buckeyes will now turn to freshman quarterback Luke Fahey, who Day said he believes has “the respect of the team.”
“Now, that being said, I mean, I think his heart rate was going really fast during the game,” Day added, “and like I said to him, I said, ‘You’ve just got to find the speed of the game right here.’ So, a unique spot to be put in as a freshman, but he’s somebody that up until this point, he comes in every day prepared. I think he has the respect of the team, and so now he’s going to be thrust into a bigger role.”
As encouraging as Day’s words on Fahey are, his update on Sayin will do little to quell the anxiety of Buckeyes fans, who worry that there’s a chance their star quarterback could be done for the season.
Multiple media members weighed in on the situation after Day’s update.
“It’s not tough to read between the lines on this,” Front Office Sports’ Ben Axelrod posted on X, insinuating he thinks Day’s words mean Sayin’s season is done.
“Julian Sayin’s injury may be the biggest on-field story of this college football season. We had to make midseason CFP picks today, and I have no idea what to do with Ohio State now,” The Athletic’sChris Vannini added.
“Buddy, this doesn’t sound great,” No Punts Allowed’sAdam Kramer wrote.
Most fans on social media speculated, along with Axelrod, that Day’s update was coach speak for Sayin’s season being over, and former Ohio State wide receivers coach Zach Smith posted on X (independent of Day’s announcement) that he would bet “everything I have Julian had (or will have) surgery and is out 4-6 months” after rewatching the play that caused the injury.
Day himself spoke about how the team will prepare Fahey given the circumstances surrounding Sayin.
“There’s going to be a lot of work done with the quarterbacks,” Day said. “He’s already been in here, as you can imagine, watching film, getting with (offensive coordinator Arthur Smith), going through some of the stuff that we’re going to see against USC. Going through just some of the things that they feel comfortable with, that they’ve done. Having a lot of those types of conversations.
“And then we’ll practice three days this week and start to identify the things that we want to do as we head into next week. But I think for sure this bye week comes at a good time for us to get ahead and put a good plan together.”
The Buckeyes will now focus on getting Fahey up to speed over the bye week, with a primetime conference matchup with the USC Trojans looming on October 31.
The post ‘I have no idea what to do with Ohio State now’: Football world reacts to announcement on Julian Sayin’s injury appeared first on The Comeback: Today’s Top Sports Stories & Reactions.