The question Ohio State faced the day after winning the national championship was a familiar one: Who’s the next quarterback? With veteran transfer Will Howard gone after guiding the Buckeyes to their first national title in a decade, coach Ryan Day is back to evaluating a young quarterback room in hopes of finding the program’s next leader. After Thursday’s first practice of fall camp, he saw early signs of progress — and a long road still ahead.
“It’s just a start,” Day said. “We’re just getting moving around, so hard to tell. I do think all three of them look a little bit stronger, a little bit more explosive, moving better. A little bit more command of the huddle. But we’ll watch the film and kind of go from there. Day 1 without pads is kind of hard. We’ll have a better feel — give me four or five days and get a better idea.”
The Buckeyes have three former blue-chip recruits competing for the job: redshirt sophomore Lincoln Kienholz, redshirt freshman Julian Sayin and true freshman Tavien St. Clair. All three are talented but unproven. None have started a college game, though Kienholz and Sayin have combined for 34 pass attempts since arriving in Columbus.
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Sayin, a former five-star prospect and No. 1 quarterback in the 2024 recruiting class out of Carlsbad (California), enrolled at Ohio State in January 2024 after a brief stint at Alabama. Despite limited game reps last fall, he’s widely seen as the frontrunner in the Buckeyes’ current race.
Day isn’t in a hurry to make a decision, but with a season-opening headliner against Texas one month away, he knows a choice can’t wait too long.
“Going into the game, you certainly would like to have a starter named,” Day said.
Looking for a leader
With so much youth in the quarterback room, Day said he’s focused on evaluating more than just arm talent. He’s watching how the players carry themselves, how they handle the huddle, how they communicate with teammates and how they lead.
“When you stand in there as a quarterback, you want everybody in that huddle to believe in you,” Day said. “You want them to follow your command. I mean, that’s a big part of it. Then taking care of the football, making routine plays routinely, getting us into the right play — that’s one of the things last year that I feel like Will (Howard) probably doesn’t get enough credit for, was all the little things that kept the offense moving.”
That includes simple things like throwing the ball away to avoid a loss or getting the team into the right protection.
“Ultimately, as a quarterback, third down, red zone and two minute is where you make your money,” Day said. “But we have good pieces around them. And they just need to make routine plays routinely, have command, and make great decisions.”
Following Will Howard’s example
Though Howard was only in Columbus for one season, Day said his impact extended beyond his production. The former Kansas State starter brought maturity, toughness and leadership — traits Day hopes rubbed off on the younger quarterbacks now competing for the job.
“I think every time you have a quarterback, you learn a little more,” Day said. “Every year, you learn just a little bit. And every quarterback I’ve been around, you take something from.”
Physically, Day said Howard’s size stood out. But more important was his mindset and presence in the locker room.
“(Will) did have an extraordinary leadership style and his mindset was definitely unique to him,” Day said. “… Both Julian and Lincoln both saw Will lead. You don’t have to be Will Howard, though. You’ve got to be yourself. And that’s just how it works. You have to be you. But you also have to lead and take command.”
That example, Day believes, set a standard for what it should look like and offered a blueprint for how a quarterback can earn trust and drive a team forward.
“There are certainly things that you learn from and things that you grab onto and recognize things that helped us win a championship,” Day said. “And certainly, Will had some of those things. But no two quarterbacks are the same. And so it’s maximizing each guy and challenging them in those areas. And a big part of that’s going to be leadership.”
Multi-sport edge?
Of the three contenders, Kienholz has perhaps the most unconventional background. A multi-sport athlete from South Dakota, he didn’t have the same access to year-round football as many of his peers — something Day thinks might actually work in his favor.
“There’s not many Division I quarterbacks coming out of South Dakota,” Day said. “But when you look at his background in multiple sports — yeah, I think any time you can play multiple sports, it’s important.”
Kienholz was a three-sport standout at Pierre (South Dakota) T.F. Riggs, earning all-state honors twice in basketball while also playing baseball at a high level. On the football field, he helped lead the Governors to three state championships as a starting quarterback and set South Dakota’s all-time passing record with more than 9,100 yards.
He added more than 3,500 rushing yards in his career and accounted for a whopping 70 total touchdowns as a senior. That production certainly reflects his dual-threat ability and raw athleticism.
While many quarterbacks now specialize in football at an early age, Day said he prefers the old-school path.
Pressure is part of the job in Columbus
No matter who emerges as the starter, Day said all three quarterbacks will need to be ready to handle pressure — and that starts in practice. In the spring, Ohio State took the rare step of allowing quarterbacks to be “live,” meaning they could be tackled, or at least touched, during drills.
“The plan is not to do that here in the preseason, but to turn the heat up,” Day said. “The heat’s on them constantly. I make sure of that.”
Ideally, the Buckeyes would like to determine a starter well before the season opener. Whether that decision becomes public before Texas arrives for the Aug. 30 matchup is uncertain, but Day said he’s preparing as if they may need more than one quarterback to win games this year.
“With a young room like that, you have to predict that you’re going to need everybody,” Day said. “So the development’s got to be on a daily basis for all three of them.”
That development will take time. But if Day learned anything from Howard’s run to the national title, it’s that steady, competent quarterback play — paired with leadership — can be enough to win it all.
And so the competition begins, with a championship standard already set.
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