For the fifth time in eight years, Ohio State’s starting quarterback is a finalist for the Heisman Trophy.
Julian Sayin arrived in New York on Friday and will be one of four players recognized during Saturday night’s Heisman ceremony along with Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza, Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia and Notre Dame running back Jeremiyah Love.
Touched down in NYC
— Ohio State Football (@OhioStateFB) December 12, 2025
@juliansayin2 | @HeismanTrophy pic.twitter.com/wRwRCaL59u
It’s a dream come true for Sayin, who’s envisioned himself attending the Heisman Trophy ceremony since he was a child.
“Me and my brother being quarterbacks, that was definitely a dream of ours, and growing up, I think I would tell people, ‘Hey, one day I'm going to be in New York for the Heisman ceremony.’ So it's definitely pretty surreal to be going out there,” Sayin said this week.
Sayin isn’t expected to win the Heisman, as Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza – who already beat out Sayin for the Maxwell Award, Davey O’Brien Award and Walter Camp Player of the Year Award – is the heavy betting favorite to hoist the trophy Saturday night. Mendoza’s head-to-head win vs. Sayin in last week’s Big Ten Championship Game all but locked up the Heisman for the Hoosier, who will become Indiana’s first-ever Heisman winner if he receives the award Saturday night.
Statistically, though, there’s certainly an argument to be made that Sayin’s season has been Heisman-worthy. He’s on pace to break the NCAA’s completion percentage record, as he’s completed 78.4% of his passing attempts this season, and also leads the nation in passer rating (182.2). Most importantly, he led Ohio State to a 12-0 regular season, including the Buckeyes’ first win over Michigan since 2019.
And regardless of where he finishes in Saturday night’s vote, his first season as Ohio State’s starting quarterback will go down as one of the best seasons ever for a Buckeye QB – especially if he leads the Buckeyes on a run through the College Football Playoff.
With all of that in mind, we take a look at how Sayin’s 2025 season compares to the other quarterbacks who are Heisman finalists this year as well as Ohio State’s other modern-era Heisman finalist quarterbacks and the last eight quarterbacks to win the Heisman.
| Player | School | Cmp% (Cmp-Att) | Pass Yds | Yds/Att | TD | INT | Pass Rtg | Rush Yds | Rush TD | Record |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| JULIAN SAYIN | OHIO STATE | 78.4 (279-356) | 3,323 | 9.33 | 31 | 6 | 182.2 | -2 | 0 | 12-1 |
| FERNANDO MENDOZA | INDIANA | 71.5 (226-316) | 2,980 | 9.43 | 33 | 6 | 181.4 | 240 | 6 | 13-0 |
| DIEGO PAVIA | VANDERBILT | 71.2 (242-340) | 3,192 | 9.39 | 27 | 8 | 171.5 | 826 | 9 | 10-2 |
| Bold represents best among group | ||||||||||
Among the three Heisman finalists who are quarterbacks – Love is excluded from this statistical comparison since he’s not a QB – Sayin has been the most statistically efficient passer, completing a higher percentage of passes than his counterparts despite attempting the most passes among the trio.
Mendoza has thrown for the most yards per attempt and touchdowns among the three, but it’s the final column that will likely propel him to lifting the trophy on Saturday night, as he led Indiana to the only undefeated record in college football entering the College Football Playoff, earning the Hoosiers the No. 1 seed in the CFP as a result.
Pavia has been the top dual-threat quarterback in college football this season, ranking in the top 10 nationally in quarterback rushing yards while also ranking fourth in the FBS in passer rating. And he’s done that without having any big-name receivers – unlike Sayin with Jeremiah Smith and Carnell Tate, and Mendoza with Omar Cooper Jr. and Elijah Sarratt – though he does have the nation’s top tight end in Vanderbilt’s Eli Stowers. The biggest thing hurting Pavia’s chances of winning the award is that Vanderbilt lost to the two best teams it played this season, Alabama and Texas, and missed the CFP as a result.
| Player | Year | Cmp% (Cmp-Att) | Pass Yds | Yds/Att | TD | INT | Pass Rtg | Rush Yds | Rush TD | Record |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| JULIAN SAYIN | 2025 | 78.4 (279-356) | 3,323 | 9.33 | 31 | 6 | 182.2 | -2 | 0 | 12-1 |
| C.J. STROUD | 2022 | 66.1 (235-355) | 3,340 | 9.41 | 37 | 6 | 176.3 | 74 | 0 | 11-1 |
| C.J. STROUD | 2021 | 70.9 (280-395) | 3,862 | 9.78 | 38 | 5 | 182.2 | -30 | 0 | 10-2 |
| JUSTIN FIELDS | 2019 | 67.5 (208-308) | 2,953 | 9.59 | 40 | 1 | 190.3 | 471 | 10 | 13-0 |
| DWAYNE HASKINS | 2018 | 70.2 (348-496) | 4,580 | 9.23 | 47 | 8 | 175.8 | 122 | 4 | 12-1 |
| TROY SMITH | 2006 | 67.0 (199-297) | 2,507 | 8.44 | 30 | 5 | 167.9 | 233 | 1 | 12-0 |
| Statistics only include games played before Heisman Trophy was awarded | ||||||||||
| Bold represents best among group; Underline represents Heisman winner | ||||||||||
Comparing Sayin’s statistics this season to Ohio State’s other Heisman finalist quarterbacks of the 21st century shows just how spectacular Sayin’s accuracy has been this season, as his completion percentage – on pace to shatter the school record, set at 73% last season by Will Howard – is more than seven points higher than the completion percentage of any of Ohio State’s other Heisman-finalist QBs.
The comparison also shows how the passing game has evolved at Ohio State and throughout college football over the past two decades, as each of Ohio State’s five Heisman finalists since 2018 had better statistics than Troy Smith, yet Smith is the only Ohio State quarterback to actually win the Heisman (excluding 1944 winner Les Horvath, who was both a quarterback and running back).
Among Ohio State’s five Heisman-finalist quarterbacks of the past eight years, the strongest candidate among them to win the award was Justin Fields in 2019 with his spectacular 40-to-1 touchdown-to-interception ratio, his dual-threat stats as a runner and his 13-0 record that included a Big Ten championship win. But Fields, who finished third in the 2019 Heisman race (with Jalen Hurts narrowly beating him out for second), had the misfortune of having his best season at Ohio State (since he played just eight games in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic) the same year that Joe Burrow had one of the best seasons ever by a collegiate quarterback.
Sayin’s yardage and touchdown numbers don’t jump off the page quite as much as Dwayne Haskins’ numbers in 2018 or C.J. Stroud’s numbers, particularly in his first year as a starter in 2021. But Sayin still has a chance to accomplish something none of Ohio State’s other Heisman-finalist quarterbacks did by leading the Buckeyes to a national championship, which would put him firmly in the conversation for the best season ever for an Ohio State quarterback.
As a redshirt freshman – which Stroud also was in 2021 – Sayin will look to duplicate Stroud’s feat by making it back to New York as a Heisman finalist next season.
| Player | School | Year | Cmp% (Cmp-Att) | Pass Yds | Yds/Att | TD | INT | Pass Rtg | Rush Yds | Rush TD | Record |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| JULIAN SAYIN | OHIO STATE | 2025 | 78.4 (279-356) | 3,323 | 9.33 | 31 | 6 | 182.2 | -2 | 0 | 12-1 |
| JAYDEN DANIELS | LSU | 2023 | 72.2 (236-327) | 3,812 | 11.66 | 40 | 4 | 208.0 | 1,134 | 10 | 9-3 |
| CALEB WILLIAMS | USC | 2022 | 66.1 (296-448) | 4,075 | 9.10 | 37 | 4 | 167.9 | 372 | 10 | 11-2 |
| BRYCE YOUNG | ALABAMA | 2021 | 68.0 (314-462) | 4,322 | 9.35 | 43 | 4 | 175.5 | 31 | 3 | 12-1 |
| JOE BURROW | LSU | 2019 | 77.9 (342-439) | 4,715 | 10.74 | 48 | 6 | 201.5 | 289 | 3 | 13-0 |
| KYLER MURRAY | OKLAHOMA | 2018 | 70.9 (241-340) | 4,053 | 11.92 | 40 | 7 | 205.7 | 892 | 11 | 12-1 |
| BAKER MAYFIELD | OKLAHOMA | 2017 | 71.0 (262-369) | 4,340 | 11.76 | 41 | 5 | 203.8 | 310 | 5 | 12-1 |
| LAMAR JACKSON | LOUISVILLE | 2016 | 57.5 (220-382) | 3,390 | 8.87 | 30 | 9 | 153.3 | 1,538 | 21 | 9-3 |
| MARCUS MARIOTA | OREGON | 2014 | 68.2 (254-372) | 3,803 | 10.22 | 38 | 2 | 186.8 | 669 | 14 | 12-1 |
| Statistics only include games played before Heisman Trophy was awarded | |||||||||||
| Bold represents best among group | |||||||||||
Comparing Sayin vs. every Heisman-winning quarterback since Marcus Mariota – who Sayin described this week as one of his childhood idols – is yet another demonstration of how exceptional Sayin’s completion rate has been this year, as Burrow was the only Heisman-winning QB in the last decade to come even close to matching Sayin’s over-78 completion percentage.
The rest of the comparison shows where Sayin hasn’t quite performed at the level of other recent Heisman-winning quarterbacks, as he’s thrown for fewer yards and accounted for fewer total touchdowns than any Heisman-winning QB in the past decade. The same is true for Mendoza and Pavia, so Sayin’s numbers still might have been enough to win this year’s Heisman if he had won the Big Ten Championship Game, but he wouldn’t have won the Heisman over Jayden Daniels, Burrow, Kyler Murray, Baker Mayfield, Lamar Jackson or Mariota, with Caleb Williams and Bryce Young being the closest debates.
Nevertheless, Sayin’s first season as Ohio State’s starting quarterback has been exceptional, especially when considering he’s an underclassman – the only one to be a Heisman finalist this year. If he can continue to complete passes with historical efficiency while adding a few more passing yards and touchdowns and making a few more plays as a runner in 2026, he could very well become Ohio State’s eighth Heisman winner next year.
