The Ohio State Buckeyes are coming off a national championship season in 2024. Entering the 2025 season, they will have a different starting quarterback for the fourth consecutive season.
In 2022, C.J. Stroud was the starter, in 2023, Kyle McCord was the starter, and in 2024 Will Howard was the starter. Head coach Ryan Day will have to figure out who will be the starting quarterback in 2025. For now, it is a three-head race.
College Football Insider Discusses Ohio State Buckeyes Quarterback Battle
Fox Sports college football and basketball writer Michael Cohen talked about the Buckeyes quarterback battle before the 2025 college football season begins. There is a chance that this battle will take place all through the summer. Cohen said about the competition,
“All of which set the stage for this year’s quarterback competition that has pitted junior Lincoln Kienholz against sophomore Julian Sayin, with five-star freshman Tavien St. Clair in line behind them. Those three players attracted more eyeballs than most when Ohio State held its spring game before an announced crowd of 40,136 fans at Ohio Stadium over the weekend, with many more watching on Big Ten Network. Everyone wanted to form an opinion about which signal-caller should be next.”
For now, Sayin is the leader on the Buckeyes depth chart. Kienholz is the projected backup quarterback, and St. Clair is predicted to be the third quarterback on Ohio State’s depth chart. After the spring football game, Ohio State’s head coach Ryan Day, talked about the quarterback battle. He also added,
“You can see there was a fairly significant emphasis on throwing the ball to see how the quarterbacks were going to respond. We’ll use this as another evaluation tool because right from the jump, from when we got off the bus to when we just finished there, I’m glad we did this. I’m glad we did the spring game. It was definitely the right thing to do. I wish we could have stayed out there for another four hours and gotten these guys reps and gotten these guys work.”
Cohen believes that Sayin could be the leader in the Buckeyes clubhouse after the spring game occurred. He said,
“Based solely on last Saturday’s showcase, which featured a modified game format that prevented quarterbacks from being hit and only allowed the second- and third-stringers to tackle, the leader in Ohio State’s clubhouse should be Sayin, anointed by many fans and analysts as the probable winner whenever Day solidifies the depth chart. Sayin completed 17 of 24 passes (70.8%) for 175 yards, one touchdown and no interceptions while flashing the tight-window accuracy and rapid decision-making that have endeared him to the Buckeyes’ coaches from the moment he arrived via the transfer portal last winter. It seemed logical that Sayin, who was the highest-rated quarterback in the 247Sports Composite for the 2024 recruiting cycle, would fill Howard’s shoes this fall and potentially run the show for his sophomore and junior seasons, if not longer, to restore some continuity at the game’s most important position.”
If Sayin winds up with the starting job for the 2025 college football season, he could have a big year with having talent already around him, especially wide receiver Jeremiah Smith. Sayin has a slight lead for now, but there is a chance that he could pull away by the time the summer begins.
If he is the starting quarterback, it will also be interesting to see if Kienholz or St. Clair will be his backup quarterback. In limited action during the 2024 college football season for the Buckeyes, he completed 41.7% of his passes for 84 yards and one touchdown.
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