The Athletic's Cameron Teague Robinson understands Ryan Day's dilemma at the quarterback position. The Ohio State Buckeyes football coach has yet to name a QB1 for the 2025 season, though Julian Sayin looks like the favorite right now.
As Teague Robinson notes, there's not technically a sure thing in OSU's room right now, given the lack of a live-game resume for either.
Teague Robinson also believes Day is under no obligation to follow the blueprint of the Alabama Crimson Tide football coach, who named Ty Simpson his starter this week.
"It seems that some fans want Day to come out and name a quarterback already, much like Alabama did by naming Ty Simpson its starter, but what the Buckeyes are doing is understandable. Ohio State is working with two inexperienced quarterbacks, neither of whom has made a start yet. Lincoln Kienholz played in the 2023 Cotton Bowl loss, but that was a long enough time ago that it feels irrelevant. He didn’t throw a pass last year, while Sayin had just 12 attempts as the third-stringer," Teague Robinson wrote.
"Because of the inexperience, Ohio State would benefit from getting each player as many reps as possible in the first half of camp, and that’s what it is doing right now. Kienholz and Sayin are splitting reps again this week."
Day's choice has been compared to his and Urban Meyer's in 2018 when Dwayne Haskins and Joe Burrow were competing for the job.
Cleveland.com's Stephen Means likened Sayin to Haskins and Keinholz to Burrow before suggesting history could repeat itself in some way, shape, or form.
"In 2018, he chose the younger guy with the high ceiling when it came to arm talent, pairing it with a roster loaded with unlimited weapons, even if it meant losing a guy embedded in the culture because he spent years doing everything right. His reward for that decision was rewriting the record books and officially stamping Columbus, Ohio, as a go-to destination for quarterbacks," Means wrote.
"Now, here he is once again, with the same dilemma standing before him.
"Maybe the same decision could be on the verge of happening, too."
If Day did it once, he can do it again. He should certainly be trusted with his process at this point.
It was Ohio State, not Alabama, who last hoisted the 24-karat gold, bronze, and stainless steel CFP trophy, after all.