Three Stars of the Game: Caden Curry, Kayden McDonald and Julian Sayin Earn Top Honors for Their Performance Against Washington

This week, the Eleven Warriors staff selected Ohio State defensive end Caden Curry, defensive tackle Kayden McDonald and quarterback Julian Sayin as Ohio State's top performers in the Buckeyes' 24-6 win over Washington.

First Star: Caden Curry

As the clock approached 0:00 and Ohio State’s win was all but guaranteed, the Eleven Warriors staff debated whether to name Curry and McDonald both as First Stars. Then Curry recorded his 11th tackle and school-record fifth tackle for loss against the Huskies. We chose Curry.

Curry, who joked after the game that Ohio State’s defensive linemen are “just a bunch of no-names,” certainly made a name for himself with his performance against Washington, collecting a team-leading 11 tackles, five tackles for loss and three sacks.

“Both of those guys played great,” Ryan Day said after the game.

Talk about a massive understatement.

Entering the 2025 season, Ohio State’s defensive line was one of the team’s question marks, as the Buckeyes had to replace first-round pick Tyleik Williams, second-round pick JT Tuimoloau, fourth-round pick Jack Sawyer and fifth-round pick Ty Hamilton. With no established stars in Larry Johnson’s room, it could have been over for Ohio State’s defensive line room. Instead, the Buckeyes are so back.

“Our defensive line, we’re always motivated. Our whole defense is motivated. We feel like we always have a chip on our shoulder because we lost so many players last year,” Curry said. “We have so much to gain now. We have so many players who just have an edge. We have such a good defense that just needs to play and just keeps playing.”

Second Star: Kayden McDonald

While Caleb Downs, Sonny Styles and Arvell Reese made headlines for the Buckeyes in the offseason and through three games of the 2025 season, McDonald has been an underrated — and often underappreciated — piece of Matt Patricia’s defense.

Entering the weekend, McDonald had 14 tackles (including a career-high eight tackles against then-No. 1 Texas in the season opener) with two tackles for loss and one sack. Then, against Washington, McDonald exploded with seven tackles, three tackles for loss and two sacks.

McDonald made two of the most important plays in Saturday’s game, forcing Washington to settle for a field goal in the red zone and a 3rd-and-Goal sack in the third quarter and forcing a turnover on downs on the Huskies’ side of the field with a fourth-down sack in the fourth quarter.

Like Curry, McDonald was humble about his individual accomplishments after Ohio State’s win, attributing his success to the entire defensive line and defense.  And like Curry, McDonald said the Buckeyes will never stop playing with a chip on their shoulder.

“I feel like we’re always going to have that mindset, and we’re never going to let it get to our head,” Curry said on behalf of both of them. “And we’re always going to play like we are those guys that just kind of play as one.”

Third Star: Julian Sayin

As usual, Jeremiah Smith made a strong case to be one of our Stars of the Game, turning eight catches into 81 yards and a touchdown. But this week’s Third Star goes to Julian Sayin, who completed 22 of 28 passes for 208 yards and two scores in his first road start.

Sayin showed confidence and poise beyond his years against Washington, which had won 22 consecutive home games entering Saturday.

“Coach Day has been preaching that to us all week, is having poise in the noise out there,” Sayin said. “And I think we did a good job of just having poise in the noise in the loud environment. And our mindset was just keep moving. Things aren’t going our way the whole time. There’s going to be momentum shifts, so we’ve just got to keep swinging.”

Sayin has been consistently accurate as Ohio State’s starter — he leads the NCAA in completion percentage at 78.9 — but against Washington, he added a new layer to his game, displaying pocket mobility and the ability to pick up key yards on the ground.

“It was just what kind of the game called for a couple of times,” Sayin said. “They were either dropping out eight guys and there were only three guys rushing, or they were playing man coverage and nobody had the quarterback. So I think it was just a couple of times where it was kind of what the game called for, and I had to go make a play with my legs.”

As he continues to evolve into a complete quarterback, Day said Sayin can — and should — lean on an Ohio State defense that has allowed 22 points through four games.

“When you have a defense playing the way it is right now, you can play with confidence knowing that you don’t have to score every single possession,” Day said. “You can control the clock and play it, I wouldn’t say more conservative, but you understand time, score and situation.”

As the season continues, we’ll track the stars (or points) each Ohio State player receives in 2025. Here’s how we’ll do it: Each time a Buckeye earns the First Star of the Game, that Buckeye adds three points to their season total. Then, the Second Star and Third Star each add two points and one point to their totals.