Two days after Ohio State’s Student Appreciation event, head coach Ryan Day indicated that Ohio State’s quarterback battle may be developing into a two-horse race between redshirt sophomore quarterback Lincoln Kienholz and redshirt freshman quarterback Julian Sayin.
“I think it’s fair to say that (true freshman quarterback Tavien St. Clair) has probably the longest way to go just because of the lack of experience,” Day said during a media availability at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center on Monday. “I think it’s easy to see – you guys saw it on Saturday – the talent and his ability to run, his athleticism, the arm, he has all those things. He just needs to play more. He needs to see it more. The game is just moving really fast for him right now, but he’s picking it up, he’s getting it every day, so I’d say he probably has the farthest way to go, and then Lincoln and Julian are pretty much neck-and-neck right now.”
Day’s comments come after Kienholz, a former four-star quarterback out of Pierre, South Dakota impressed students and media personnel with a quality performance during an open practice on Student Appreciation Day, while Sayin struggled.
Still, Day stressed that the practice during the Student Appreciation event was no different than any other.
“I met with the quarterbacks and I made the comment that the only that was different about Saturday’s practice was the fact that we had students there and we had the media there,” Day said. “Other than that, it was just another practice, but what it does make you realize is how important every rep is. And that’s my job, and that’s (quarterbacks coach) Billy Fessler and (offensive coordinator) Brian Hartline’s job is to make sure that they understand every single play matters.”
Dating back to last season, it was Sayin, not Kienholz, who pushed then-Ohio State quarterback Devin Brown for the backup position behind then-starter Will Howard. Sayin never surpassed Brown in the depth chart, but his push for the backup spot combined with his five-star rating out of high school, had many outside of the program projecting him as the team’s starter.
While Sayin could certainly still be Ohio State’s 2025 starter, Kienholz’s Spring performance has perhaps made the battle more interesting.
“Absolutely,” Day said when asked if Kienholz was in the thick of the race to be Ohio State’s starting quarterback. “You saw his potential on some of the throws that he made, you saw his athleticism show.”
For Kienholz, it’s a far cry from where he was just last season. Coming off a poor performance in the 2023 Cotton Bowl, where he completed just 6-of-17 passes for 86 yards, Kienholz was buried in the depth chart behind Howard, Brown and Sayin and attempted no passes in his second season with the Buckeyes.
Now, Kienholz seems to be entrenched in a legitimate battle to be the Buckeyes’ starter in 2025, a battle Day doesn’t anticipate ending in the Spring.
“Somebody would have to make a significant move here on Tuesday and or Saturday to really make that move to jump ahead,” Day said.
