The Spring Showdown: Ohio State’s Quest to Build the Ultimate Quarterback Dream Team

The two quarterbacks leading this year’s competition, Will Howard and Devin Brown, who were the first signal-callers to practice with the starters over the weekend, deserved a large portion of that attention. The former was a highly sought-after Kansas State transfer. Last season, the latter served as the main backup for the Buckeyes.

However, as the game got closer, the camera operator focused on true freshman Julian Sayin, who was one of the highlights of Ohio State’s winter transfer portal efforts. Sayin was ranked as the top quarterback prospect for the 2024 recruitment cycle by 247Sports Composite, making him a five-star prospect. His enrollment at Alabama for the spring semester coincided with head coach Nick Saban’s unexpected announcement of his retirement, which sent shockwaves across the conference and from coast to coast in sports. Sayin leaped through the portal at that point and arrived in Columbus.

“This is a future star right here,” When a colleague expressed concern about photographing the quarterback next to Howard on Ohio State’s throwing line, the cameraman acknowledged as much. Sayin heard the comment and attempted, but was unable, to suppress a smile.

The quarterback struggle dominated the Buckeyes’ spring game narrative for the second year running, but head coach Ryan Day added a very contemporary wrinkle this year with the intertwining of selection and retention.

Howard, Brown and Sayin are three of the five scholarship quarterbacks that Day and his staff would like to keep beyond the next two weeks, with sophomore Lincoln Kienholz and Air Noland, another five-star freshman, rounding out the list. That the Buckeyes could even assemble such a collection of talent speaks to the abundant resources and consolidation of power now fueling the sport’s elite. But maintaining such depth when the transfer portal reopens on Tuesday presents an entirely different set of challenges. If two’s company and three’s a crowd, then the quarterback room at Ohio State is a swarm.

“We’ll sit down as a staff and meet on it,” offensive coordinator Chip Kelly said. “Ryan, he does an unbelievable job of, I think, [getting] all our players [to] understand where they fit and what the picture is, and we’ll give them our assessment. We do it after every day. They know where they stand after practice one, after two, after three, after four. We grade everything. They’re getting constant feedback in terms of where we are.”

Nothing in Saturday’s spring game altered the belief that Howard will always be the starting quarterback. Using his final year of eligibility at Ohio State, the 6-foot-4, 237-pound senior passed on what he described as mid- to late-round interest from the NFL, which alone suggests he anticipated to land the job. And Howard was in charge of the first few series when the starting offense hit the field at Ohio Stadium over the weekend. Despite not being able to lead a scoring drive, he finished the afternoon having completed 9 of 13 passes for 77 yards.

After 15 spring practices, Howard and Brown’s competition is still close enough that, when questioned about selecting a starting during postgame news conferences, neither Day nor Kelly raised their hands. That may be sufficient to guarantee that Brown, a junior, stays with the Buckeyes through fall camp in order to keep vying for the position. With a 14-yard toss to Brennen Schramm late in the second quarter, Brown scored the first touchdown of the game. In total, he completed 5 of 7 throws for 66 yards. In three scrambles, he also picked up 24 rushing yards, demonstrating his ability to make plays outside the pocket.

“When you have a quarterback who can run,” Day said, “it does change the numbers as we all know. You guys have seen that over the years. And it’s going to be a weapon for us this year because all of our quarterbacks are athletic enough to do that.”

Key takeaways from Ohio State’s spring game

 

Until the portal closes on April 30, transfer rumors are expected to center around the names of Kienholz and Noland, with Howard and Brown appearing to be at the top of the pack and Sayin making an early push since moving from Alabama. In the 2023 recruiting cycle, Kienholz was rated as a four-star prospect and ranked as the 15th quarterback. He switched his allegiance from Washington to Ohio State, where he was a third-string player last season and saw limited action. In a bowl loss to Missouri, he completed 6 of 17 throws for 86 yards and no touchdowns following the entry of starter Kyle McCord into the portal and an injury to Brown. On Saturday, Kienholz demonstrated something not much better: 10 of 17 for 71 yards, two interceptions, and no touchdowns.

Sayin’s entrance left Noland as Ohio State’s lone quarterback in the signing class. With an outstanding performance at the Elite 11 Finals last summer, he maintained his surge in the rankings as a four-star prospect and the No. 4 quarterback in the 2024 cycle. Despite nagging rumors of a switch to Oregon and Sayin’s surprising pledge during the winter, Noland stayed true to the Buckeyes. In the spring game, he ran for 42 yards on five attempts while also completing 5 of 7 throws for 47 yards, no touchdowns, and one interception. Sayin is far further along in his development as he finished 10-for-17 for 85 yards, no touchdowns, and one interception.

“Julian is a very fast processor, you know?” Kelly said. “He really thinks very, very quickly on his feet. He makes really quick decisions. He doesn’t stick in reads. He can progress and he sees things really well for a young player and not having been exposed to a lot of college defenses. And especially what [defensive coordinator] Jim [Knowles] does. Jim can make a young freshman quarterback cry with some of the stuff he does. But I never saw that with Julian.”

In virtually every manner possible, Ohio State has procured its quarterbacks in advance of the 2024 season. Keeping them is the true problem.

“We’re going to give them feedback, for sure,” Day said. “And go from there.”