Freshman quarterback Tavien St. Clair has been committed to Ohio State since June 21, 2023, and after two full seasons as a commit, he’s finally enrolled and on campus for this year’s spring practices.
Throughout the nearly two years that he was still waiting to sign, he was the furthest thing from a stranger to the program, making sure that he made it to every home game in both of the last two seasons and trying to attend practice whenever he could.
Living about an hour away from Ohio State helped him be as present as he possibly could and now that he’s a member of the team, the true freshman thinks that being around the program for so long despite being just weeks into his time in Columbus has already helped him get acclimated.
“I’m not really sure how other freshmen quarterbacks have felt coming in here, but I know for me, I didn’t feel a little bit more comfortable,” St. Clair said. “From talking to Julian (Sayin) about his transition from Alabama to here and how it was a little bit easier for me with the familiarity with the facilities, the people and the coaches.
“The relationships were already built. They understand how I learn and how I operate in my mind, so they’ve been able to coach me and adapt to how I learn.
Quarterbacks coach Billy Fessler believes there might be some benefit to being around the program as much as St. Clair was, but he still knows that there is a lot of work to do in terms of learning the Buckeyes offensive scheme.
“At the end of the day, he’s still a guy that should be in high school. Does it help that he was around all of last spring and in a bunch of meeting? Yeah, I think so,” Fessler said. “At the end of the day, he’s sitting in those meetings (last year) but he still has his own offense to go run the following fall, so his mind is more on that, probably, than really studying all of the details of different concepts in this scheme we’re running here.”
St. Clair also understands that he is still new to the program and there is a lot that he can learn. He said some of the things he’s learning from Fessler and head coach Ryan Day are completely new to him, and he didn’t realize how much detail could go into being a quarterback.
“There’s little intricate details to even just taking a snap under center that I never knew were there because I had never done it,” he said. “So learning that stuff and fine-tuning everything that has to go into being a great quarterback, it was definitely very eye-opening.”
St. Clair is one of just three scholarship quarterbacks on the roster along with Sayin and redshirt sophomore Lincoln Kienholz, and there is a wide-open battle for the starting job in the fall after Will Howard exhausted his eligibility and is set to be drafted in a month.
All three of them are hoping to win the job, but aren’t going into the competition with that mindset. They each are only focused on simply working as hard as they can and trying to get better every single day, hoping that will be enough to make them stand out.
For guys like Sayin and Kienholz, that might be a little easier since they have been through spring camp and a full season before (two in the case of Kienholz). But St. Clair is still doing everything that he can to try to take the next step.
Freshman quarterback Tavien St. Clair has been committed to Ohio State since June 21, 2023, and after two full seasons as a commit, he’s finally enrolled and on campus for this year’s spring practices.
Throughout the nearly two years that he was still waiting to sign, he was the furthest thing from a stranger to the program, making sure that he made it to every home game in both of the last two seasons and trying to attend practice whenever he could.
Living about an hour away from Ohio State helped him be as present as he possibly could and now that he’s a member of the team, the true freshman thinks that being around the program for so long despite being just weeks into his time in Columbus has already helped him get acclimated.
“I’m not really sure how other freshmen quarterbacks have felt coming in here, but I know for me, I didn’t feel a little bit more comfortable,” St. Clair said. “From talking to Julian (Sayin) about his transition from Alabama to here and how it was a little bit easier for me with the familiarity with the facilities, the people and the coaches.
“The relationships were already built. They understand how I learn and how I operate in my mind, so they’ve been able to coach me and adapt to how I learn.
Quarterbacks coach Billy Fessler believes there might be some benefit to being around the program as much as St. Clair was, but he still knows that there is a lot of work to do in terms of learning the Buckeyes offensive scheme.
“At the end of the day, he’s still a guy that should be in high school. Does it help that he was around all of last spring and in a bunch of meeting? Yeah, I think so,” Fessler said. “At the end of the day, he’s sitting in those meetings (last year) but he still has his own offense to go run the following fall, so his mind is more on that, probably, than really studying all of the details of different concepts in this scheme we’re running here.”
St. Clair also understands that he is still new to the program and there is a lot that he can learn. He said some of the things he’s learning from Fessler and head coach Ryan Day are completely new to him, and he didn’t realize how much detail could go into being a quarterback.
“There’s little intricate details to even just taking a snap under center that I never knew were there because I had never done it,” he said. “So learning that stuff and fine-tuning everything that has to go into being a great quarterback, it was definitely very eye-opening.”
St. Clair is one of just three scholarship quarterbacks on the roster along with Sayin and redshirt sophomore Lincoln Kienholz, and there is a wide-open battle for the starting job in the fall after Will Howard exhausted his eligibility and is set to be drafted in a month.
All three of them are hoping to win the job, but aren’t going into the competition with that mindset. They each are only focused on simply working as hard as they can and trying to get better every single day, hoping that will be enough to make them stand out.
For guys like Sayin and Kienholz, that might be a little easier since they have been through spring camp and a full season before (two in the case of Kienholz). But St. Clair is still doing everything that he can to try to take the next step.
“The biggest thing I’m focusing on right now is translating everything from those meeting rooms to the field as quickly as I can,” he said. “Just picking up on every note that I can and every advantage that I can get on my opponent, I want to have that advantage.”
