Of all the position battles to still be ongoing, very few would have expected the Buckeyes not to have named a backup quarterback with just two weeks to go before the start of the season. Returning sophomore quarterback and former five-star Tavien St. Clair was presumed to be the obvious choice to be Sayin’s understudy after former Buckeye Lincoln Kienholz transferred to Louisville following the 2025 season.
However, true freshman three-star quarterback Luke Fahey has not made it easy on St. Clair in fall camp. Fahey, ranked as the No. 586 player in the country, the No. 35 quarterback and the No. 47 player from the state of California, has impressed his head coach with a relentless work ethic this offseason.
“First off, he works his tail off in terms of his preparation,” Day said of Fahey. “He’s in here early, and he leaves late. Works hard in meetings, very conscientious on the field, very confident on the field. He can handle all the stuff that comes with it, in terms of the protection checks, the run checks, calling in and out of the huddle, calling at the line of scrimmage, communicating, and then he has good anticipation and feel on the field.”
Even though he wasn’t the highest-ranked recruit out of high school, it shouldn’t come as a huge surprise that Fahey has immediately turned heads since entering Columbus. At Mission Viejo High School, Fahey threw for 25 touchdowns and 3,199 passing yards as a senior, and over three seasons as a starter, only threw nine interceptions. Day said that he wants the young quarterback to keep learning from his mistakes.
“He knows time, situation, score, and has good awareness. Those are all positives,” Day said. “You got to keep staying after it, and keep working at it. There are definitely bright spots there for sure. As a quarterback, there are certain things that you have to continue to learn, but experience is the number one thing. The more you play, the more you learn — and he’s definitely learning every day. The thing that we all want to see is if a mistake is made, the next day it gets corrected, and then we continue to move on, which he’s shown. That’s certainly been a positive.”
Fahey also showed during the Spring game that he has some athleticism. He had a 68-yard rushing touchdown late in the exhibition. For all the good he’s done since coming to Columbus, it will not be easy for Fahey to beat out St. Clair for the backup spot. At 6-5, 230, St. Clair may be the most talented quarterback on the roster. He was ranked as the No. 7 player in the country, the No. 3 quarterback and the No. 1 player from the state of Ohio out of high school, and during his time at Ohio State has flashed his arm strength and mobility.
Sitting behind one of the most talented quarterbacks in the country in Sayin, St. Clair hasn’t received much playing time at Ohio State. He only appeared in one game for the Buckeyes last year and didn’t complete a pass in 13 plays during his team’s 70-0 win over Grambling State.
However, Day said he plans to get both Fahey and St. Clair some first-team reps before the team’s first game against Ball State on Sept. 5.
“Those guys are going to continue to work this week, because we’re not into game week yet,” Day said when asked who his backup quarterback would be. “These guys are still competing, and we want another week of work to see how these guys continue to evolve throughout the next five days, and we’ll go from there. Both have shown bright spots for sure, and we know what’s important there, and there’ll be times, I think even this week, we may even give them a chance with the ones to see what that looks like, but Julian’s had a good camp. Julian’s been strong and those guys have a chance to see in the room what it looks like to be a leader, what the expectation is, so they’re working hard, they’re right in the middle of it.”
