COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio State football coach Ryan Day hasn’t named a starter at quarterback yet, but he did go into some detail Thursday about what he will be looking for as Lincoln Kienholz and Julian Sayin compete to replace Will Howard, who led the Buckeyes to last season’s national championship.
Ohio State’s 34-23 win against Notre Dame in the College Football Playoff final at Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium in January secured the program’s ninth national championship and first in a decade.
“We have good pieces around them,” Day said of Kienholz and Sayin, “and they just need to make routine plays routinely, have command (of the offense) and make great decisions.”
Sayin, a 6-foot-1, 203-pound redshirt freshman from California, ended last season as Howard’s backup, but the five-star recruit played in only four games and threw 12 passes.
Kienholz is a 6-3, 215-pound sophomore who brought a lesser recruiting pedigree with him from South Dakota three years ago, but he provides more size and possibly more athleticism to the position. Kienholz appeared in two games last season but did not attempt a pass after he was 10-of-22 for 111 yards as the third-stringer in 2023.