One of the biggest compliments to give a redshirt freshman quarterback making the first start of his career against the No. 1 team in the country is that he did nothing to lose the game for his team.
That was Julian Sayin’s performance against Texas on Saturday. The stat line wasn’t gaudy. He finished 13-of-20 (65%) for 126 yards and a touchdown, though those numbers would have been better if his receivers hadn’t dropped three passes. But he was willing to take checkdowns. He threw the ball away a time or two.
"I said in the locker room, I thought he handled himself well," Ryan Day said after the game. "I thought he took care of the ball. Made some throws when he needed to. A couple times when it wasn't there, he did not force it. Could we have opened it up more in the second half? Yeah. But I thought Brian (Hartline) called an unselfish game. I thought the defense was playing well."
Sayin showed a maturity beyond his years alongside some impressive accuracy against Texas, with huge performances on the table for later as Ohio State opens its offense up.
"I was just going out there and focusing on my job," Sayin said. "I think the defense played really well, obviously, and then the offensive line and the receivers and the running backs ran hard. So it kind of made my job easy just trying to distribute the ball."
Sayin came out on Saturday looking steadier than a surgeon. After his first pass of the season on a 4th-and-1 was dropped by tight end Max Klare, he zipped a throw right back to Klare through a tight window for 11 yards and a first down on 3rd-and-3 to prevent a three-and-out on the Buckeyes’ second possession. Two more drops from Jeremiah Smith, of all people, killed that drive.
But the California native remained unrattled. Sayin went back to Smith for 16 yards to catalyze a 13-play, 80-yard touchdown drive, where he went 2-of-3 for 22 yards and drew a 10-yard defensive holding penalty on another pass. When no one came open downfield after Ohio State dialed up a shot play, he stayed patient and took a check down to tight end Bennett Christian for six yards.
"I think Coach Day and Coach (Billy) Fessler have kind of instilled that in our quarterback room, that on third down, if the big play's not there, it's okay to check the ball down and (win) the battle of field position,” Sayin said. “So I think just the preparedness from Coach Day and Coach Fessler about, ‘Hey, we're not going to lose the game if it's third and extra long. Be able to take the check down.’"
Early in the fourth quarter, Sayin got on the board for his first touchdown of the year, a 40-yard strike to Carnell Tate that was, ironically, his most inaccurate throw of the day. Tate had separation on a double-move up the sideline, but Sayin underthrew him. The benefit of having the best receiver corps in college football is that they can make spectacular plays when you don’t deliver your best football.
CARNELL TATE 40 YARD TD
— FOX College Football (@CFBONFOX) August 30, 2025
The @OhioStateFB Buckeyes make it a two-score game pic.twitter.com/QwOtTZExl6
Day sees plenty of room for Sayin’s play to grow. 126 yards won’t be the most he throws for this season. But he did what was needed to defeat the No. 1 team in the nation on Saturday.
"A ton," Day said of the room Sayin has to build. "But I was impressed with his poise. He had a good look in his eye. And what he was saying and what he was seeing was exactly what was going on. That's a great sign. I remember C.J. (Stroud)'s first start. I remember Justin (Fields)'s first start. And when I mean first start, like in big games.
“But when you have that first start and you're out there, there are so many things to take into consideration. When you're the quarterback at Ohio State and you're playing No. 1 Texas against one of the top defenses in the country, which we have a tremendous amount of respect for, the one thing we didn't want to do, and I didn't want to do, was put him in a bad spot. It's just not fair to him. Now, coming out of it, quite honestly, I think he probably could have handled (more on his plate). But we weren't going to do that because we know it's a long season. And that was the decision that was made.”
Another veteran trait Sayin showed was his command of the huddle.
“Just composed,” left guard Luke Montgomery said. “I told him before the game, like, just go out there and play. We got you up front. We're the veteran group. We got you. We’re gonna protect our balls off, and just do what we got to do to get the ball down the field for you. We did that. So I think he did a heck of a job for a first game against, obviously, a great team.”
The yards and the touchdowns and the hype will come. But much like Ohio State proved it has a national-championship caliber team again in 2025 by knocking off No. 1 Texas, Sayin showed he has what’s required between the ears to be a national championship-caliber quarterback.
"I feel like I was really well-prepared by my coaches," Sayin said. "Coach Fessler and Coach Day, they do a really good job of implementing the game plan and then sitting and watching tape with us. So I think I was really well-prepared and being able to see the looks that we watched on tape."
