The Ohio State football team is choosing between two quarterbacks for the starting job this year. With Will Howard now in Pittsburgh with the Steelers, the Buckeyes will have a new signal-caller. It was widely expected that Julian Sayin, a former five-star recruit, would win the job.
Lincoln Kienholz is the other quarterback who is fighting for that job. It looked like Sayin had jumped into the lead for the job. Kienholz was never expected to truly be in the hunt. Instead, things have changed. Reports out of camp indicate that Kienholz is actually in the running to be the starter.
Sayin is clearly the more purely talented quarterback of the two, but talent doesn't always win out in situations like this. Kienholz has started to play with a little more consistency and is the better athlete, and in a surprising twist, the Ohio State Buckeyes have a true quarterback competition.
The Ohio State football team has a true quarterback competition between Julian Sayin and Lincoln Kienholz
One of the things that Kienholz has going for him is his stature. Sayin is a relatively short quarterback, standing at just 6'1. Kienholz is listed at 6'3, which lowers the chances of passes getting batted at the line of scrimmage, something that shorter quarterbacks have a problem with.
Kienholz is also a much better runner than Sayin is, which gives him a different dimension. In Brian Hartline's offense, it's still unclear what kind of plays he will call. He might be inclined to use more read option stuff if he has a quarterback with that skill set.
There's still a good chance that Ryan Day is hyping up Kienholz to reporters in order to get more out of Sayin. He did something similar back in 2021 with C.J. Stroud, who wasn't as vocal of a leader at the time. Sayin has a similar personality to Stroud.
Day might want Sayin to assert himself a little bit more when it comes to the leadership aspect of things. He wants someone who takes command of the huddle and can play with consistency. I still think that Day will end up picking Sayin, but things have become murkier on that front.
If the Buckeyes do pick Kienholz as the starter, they would be picking someone that they think can win more games than Sayin can. Day only has a few weeks to figure it out.