The Ohio State Buckeyes will have a new starting quarterback for quite a while. With Julian Sayin going down against Indiana, Luke Fahey will be the guy the Buckeyes roll with. He is a true freshman who was a three-star recruit in the 2026 recruiting class.
That means that former five-star recruit Tavien St. Clair will be the backup. He has a much more ballyhooed pedigree compared to Fahey. He was widely expected to be the quarterback of the future. Former Buckeye head coach Urban Meyer is shocked he isn't the one Ryan Day is going with.
Urban Meyer can't believe Tavien St. Clair isn't starting for the Ohio State football team
While speaking on The Triple Option, Meyer is stunned that Day has opted to go with Fahey over St. Clair moving forward.
"It's perplexing why he's (St. Clair) not the quarterback. When Sayin went down, we went through it this, obviously, it's well documented, the Cardale Jones. Everyone else is kind of tired, but you have to practice your a-- off...From what I understand, Ohio State has a very unselfish team. They're going to go practice a bunch this week and get their backup quarterback (ready). Because you've got a real one coming up.
Meyer is clearly not attending practice every day like Ryan Day is. He just sees the recruiting pedigree, just like the fans do. He sees the size and the strength that St. Clair has and assumes he should be the better choice. I really liked what I saw out of St. Clair coming out of high school myself, but Day likes Fahey more.
It's pretty clear, hearing things around the program, that Fahey is just a faster processor than St. Clair is at this point. Fahey can make quick decisions and get the ball out where it needs to go. St. Clair still needs to work on that, even though he has been in the system longer than Fahey has.
Ohio State needs both Fahey and St. Clair to be ready to go
The Buckeyes will need to make sure that both Fahey and St. Clair get a fair number of reps. St. Clair is just one bad snap away from having to enter the game, just as Fahey was last week. Ohio State also might have a specific package for St. Clair that they utilize.
St. Clair will be getting all of the second-team reps while Fahey gets all of the starter reps. Both will be getting an increase in snaps in practice. Fahey needs a lot of help around him. He needs the running game to be elite, as well as the defense to keep the other team from scoring so many points that he can't catch up.
Ohio State will be working almost non-stop in the next two weeks to make sure that Fahey is ready to go against USC. The one good thing about the timing of this injury is that it happened right before the bye week. That gives Fahey some extra time to prove Meyer wrong about Ohio State's QB choice.
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