If you asked anyone how Ohio State was going to accomplish its goals this season, even as recently as a week ago, the most common answer would be Julian Sayin, Jeremiah Smith, and the Buckeye passing attack. Now Julian Sayin is out indefinitely.
I think Buckeye fans should mentally prepare for him to not play the rest of this season. While things may look bleak now, we've seen Ohio State overcome quarterback injuries before. This is a different era of college football, but the standards in Columbus never change.
The first goal of any Ohio State football season is to beat Michigan. We may be getting a battle of backup quarterbacks in that one, as Bryce Underwood is being benched in favor of Tommy Carr, the grandson of former Wolverines coach Lloyd Carr.
The Wolverines' offense has been anemic with Underwood behind center this season. Tommy Carr was able to lead that offense to good results in the second half of their most recent game against Penn State, but we'll see if he can continue that for the rest of the season.
The Wolverines do boast the nation's number-one defense by yards per play allowed. If Ryan Day has learned the proper lessons from 2024, the Buckeyes should still win that game on November 28th, no matter who starts at quarterback.
The second goal is to win the Big Ten championship. The Buckeyes are currently one of two teams that are undefeated in Big Ten play, along with the UCLA Bruins. In an 18-team conference, it is really hard to get to the conference title game. The only way for Ohio State to guarantee their spot in Indianapolis for what is likely going to be the final Big Ten title game is to win every game remaining on their regular season schedule.
Ohio State's biggest challenged are yet to come
Their biggest challenges are immediately after the bye. Say what you will about USC and Lincoln Riley's defense, but they are going to score points. A true freshman making his first career start having to win a shootout on the road is a lot to ask.
They follow that up with a home game against the Oregon Ducks. If Dante Moore gets the start for the Ducks, they might be favored in Columbus depending on how the USC game unfolds. Northwestern and Nebraska aren't pushovers either, as the Buckeyes face them before Michigan comes to Ohio Stadium at the end of the year.
Maybe OSU can withstand a loss and still get to Indy, but tiebreakers could get complicated and keep them from winning the conference. It would be a shocking seven straight seasons without a Big Ten title.
The third goal is to win the national championship. The first step in doing so is making the college football playoff. If Ohio State wins out, they'll get a bye in the playoff and might be the number one seed. If they lose a game, they should still be in.
They already have two top-15 road wins, and if they end up 10-2, they'll add some more quality wins to their resume. A 9-3 Ohio State team might have the resume to sneak into the CFP if there is a weaker field this year than there was last year.
The bigger question will be if the Luke Fahey-led Buckeyes are good enough to win three or four playoff games in a row. We haven't seen this version of the team play a full game yet, so we can't make judgments yet. That said, it just isn't fair to the quality of the rest of the sport to think that an undersized, true freshman, three-star quarterback can lead his team to the title unless he was playing for a superteam.
If 2019 Ohio State was playing in 2026 with Luke Fahey in place of Justin Fields, I'd say that team has a chance. This team has imperfections that Julian Sayin was supposed to be good enough to overcome. Ryan Day hasn't ruled Sayin out for the season just yet, but if he doesn't come back, I just can't see any way the Buckeyes are hoisting the trophy in Las Vegas on January 25th.
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