Ohio State defeated Indiana 19-15 on Saturday in Bloomington, but the victory costed the Buckeyes their starting quarterback.
Midway through the fourth quarter, Julian Sayin was hit as he was trying to throw, ultimately fumbling with the ball being recovered by Philip Daniels. The tackle jolted Sayin’s arm in an awkward position, and he got up clearly in pain with his arm at his side.
The second-year QB was taken into the locker room, and returned shortly after with his arm in a sling. Ryan Day announced after the game that while they didn’t have all the details of Sayin’s injury, they knew he will be out for, “several weeks.”
That is a pretty huge deal for an Ohio State team whose passing offense ranks near the top nationally, in addition to the effect it could have on the Heisman candidacy of Jeremiah Smith, who despite being the best player in the sports does still need someone to throw him the ball.
Sayin was having a nightmare game prior to the injury. The usually accurate QB was completing barely over 50% of his passes and threw two very bad interceptions, missing some very wide open receivers and looking rattled from the start. Still, even with Sayin’s struggles in big games, having him on the field is likely still a better alternate than the huge question mark that now exists at quarterback.
There seem to be two options to replace Sayin moving forward, whether that be only for a few weeks or more long term, and both are freshmen: Luke Fahey and Tavien St. Clair.
Fahey is the one who replaced Sayin against Indiana, and while it was an extremely difficult situation to be thrown into, he didn’t exactly look ready to go. He did have one nice 8-yard scramble, which also led to a late hit 15-yard penalty on Indiana, but outside of that Fahey threw two incomplete passes and was also called for an intentional grounding.
Fahey was a three-star quarterback in the 2026 class. The California native was ranked as the No. 35 QB nationally and the No. 586 player overall, per the 247Sports Composite. Fahey is undersized at his position, listed at 5-foot-11, but was incredibly productive at the prep level, throwing for more than 7,000 yards with 68 touchdowns to only nine picks in his high school career.
The Mission Viejo product had been the first man up off the bench in blowouts this season for Ohio State, getting a few throws in early in the year against Ball State and Kent State. Fahey completed 9-of-11 passes for 204 yards and two TDs in garbage time of those two games, but he also threw two picks.
It has been surprising to most that it is Fahey that has earned the backup quarterback job, given that he has been competing with former five-star Tavien St. Clair, the other option to take over for Sayin.
St. Clair came to Ohio State viewed as the quarterback of the future for the Buckeyes. Standing at 6-foot-4, St. Clair was ranked as the No. 1 player in Ohio and the No. 3 quarterback in the 2025 class, also coming in as the No. 7 overall prospect.
Winner of the Elite 11’s accuracy competition and a finalist for 2o24 Ohio Mr. Football, St. Clair threw for more than 10,000 yards and more than 100 touchdowns at Bellefontaine, and was a three-time Central Buckeye Conference Offensive Player of the Year.
St. Clair also made his way into both the Ball State and Kent State games this season. He completed five of his six pass attempts in the opener for 52 yards and a touchdown, but was picked off in his only pass attempt against the Golden Flashes.
Everyone thought St. Clair would be the heir apparent to Sayin, taking over as the Buckeyes’ starting quarterback in 2027, and so Fahey earning the backup job out of camp has come as a bit of a shock. Now, with Ohio State once again in need of a quarterback, does that competition reset?
Fahey and St. Clair have wildly different prospect rankings coming out of high school, but clearly the coaching staff has seen more from the former than the latter in their time in Columbus. That being said, winning a job as Ohio State’s backup quarterback to take over during mop-up duty is a hell of a lot different than making a start against USC in two weeks.
Day and his staff should use this first week of practice heading into the off week as an open quarterback competition. Let Fahey and St. Clair get as many reps as possible with the ones, and figure out which guy gives you the best chance to win games.
Once you have established the winner heading into the weekend, you can then use the following week of practice to actually install the offense for the new QB before heading out west.
Either way, they cannot look to completely change what they have been doing just because Sayin is no longer out there. The passing attack has been the much better half of the offense this season, and they can’t just abandon that — especially because they still have Jeremiah Smith and a bunch of other talented receivers out there.
The coaching staff has to trust whichever quarterback earns the job to continue leading this offense the same way they had before. There will be no time for a learning curve with USC and Oregon on the horizon, so they really need to get this right.
Ohio State is in a great position heading into the back half of the schedule, but that could all flip on its head if they don’t have a quarterback who can get the job done.