Coming off a national championship season, the Ohio State Buckeyes were expected to take a slight step backward. They tied a school record with 14 players taken in the 2025 draft, including QB Will Howard. While this was great news for the program and a key factor in their recruiting success, there was a lot of talent that needed to be replaced on the field.
Enter the 2025 season. Matt Patricia has the defense rolling, Brian Hartline has lived up to expectations as the new OC, and young talent has filled the void of previous stars. While all of this is fantastic for OSU fans, there is one player on the Buckeyes' offense who has not yet received the recognition he is deserving of.
Quarterback Julian Sayin is only a redshirt freshman with five starts under his belt. However, the former five-star prospect has looked like a seasoned pro to begin the year. So far, Sayin has racked up over 1300 yards, 13 touchdowns, and possesses an 85.8 quarterback rating, which is the eighth best in all of college football.
Additionally, he currently leads all of college football in completion percentage, sitting at a whopping 80.2%, the only player in the FBS with a percentage over 80. With all of these combined stats, one would think he is sitting at the top of the Heisman rankings. Although he is currently tied for the seventh-best odds on FanDuel to win the award at +1600, he most certainly deserves to be higher.
Of the six players ahead of him in the odds, five of them are quarterbacks. The only non-QB above him is his teammate and favorite target, WR Jeremiah Smith. These five quarterbacks include Oregon's Dante Moore, Miami's Carson Beck, Alabama's Ty Simpson, Oklahoma's John Mateer, and Indiana's Fernando Mendoza. Ole Miss quarterback Trinidad Chambliss is the player tied with Sayin.
A few of these quarterbacks listed are deserving of the hype. Dante Moore, Carson Beck, and Fernando Mendoza have been exceptional to start the year. But Julian Sayin's overall stats are comparable to or better than these three.
Although John Mateer jumped out as the early favorite, he missed their last game due to a hand injury, and it is unclear if he will play this week in the Red River Rivalry game against Texas. Ty Simpson has been playing great as of late, but he really struggled in the week one loss to Florida State, a team that is not as good as we originally thought.
Trinidad Chambliss has exploded onto the scene after replacing Austin Simmons early in the year. However, he didn't start the first two games of the season, and he only has 7 total touchdowns to date.
There are a few arguments being used against Julian Sayin to diminish his Heisman hopes. The first one is the lack of competition Ohio State has faced so far this year. With Texas dropping its second game of the season to Florida this past weekend, that win does not look as great as it once did.
However, it was his first start against the preseason number one team in the country. Ryan Day and Brian Hartline had a conservative game plan drawn up for Sayin, as they did not want to overwhelm the young quarterback in week one.
Other than that game, he has lit up every team he has played against. The complete dominance of Ohio State against these other teams is causing people to think that he has only played against bad competition. That is not the truth. Ohio University is one of the better group of five teams this season. Both Washington and Minnesota may not make the playoffs, but they are solid teams that should be playing in a bowl game at the end of the season.
The other argument being used against Sayin is the fact that he has the best wide receiver room in the country. Jeremiah Smith and Carnell Tate would make life easier for any quarterback. Although this may be true, he still needs to show up every week and put the ball on the money.
Last year, it took the Buckeyes until the playoffs to utilize their weapons correctly. Julian Sayin has had no issue on that front to begin the year. To add on, Brian Hartline and the offense haven't even flipped to page three of the playbook yet. Just wait until he actually starts to sling the ball around.
Although there are other players deserving to be in the Heisman conversation, Julian Sayin should not be punished for the situation he is in. Ohio State can only play the teams on its schedule, and Sayin can only throw the balls to the receivers on his team. Although the outside factors are helpful, he has put himself in a position to be a legitimate Heisman contender. It's about time we start giving him the recognition he deserves.