HC Ryan Day shares massive decision about Ohio State's starting QB vs. Texas Longhorns

Zain Bando

HC Ryan Day shares massive decision about Ohio State's starting QB vs. Texas Longhorns image

Twelve days remain until the college football season commences officially with Week 1, as one of the headline attractions features a Big Ten-SEC showdown between Ohio State and Texas in Columbus.

The game should be all too familiar to college football consumers as the pair met in January in the Cotton Bowl for the right to go to the national title game, with the Buckeyes coming away victorious in a fantastic finish. The Buckeyes would then move on as quarterback Will Howard departed for the NFL Draft, marking the end of the team's national title story this past season.

Now, a shift and change at the quarterback position was made Monday, which could define the season for Ohio State: Julian Sayin becoming the team's starter.

"No. 3 Ohio State has named redshirt freshman Julian Sayin the starting quarterback, per coach Ryan Day. He’ll make his first career start against No. 1 Texas on Aug. 30. Sayin is a former Top 10 overall recruit who transferred to Ohio State from Alabama," ESPN's Pete Thamel tweeted

Day stated publicly earlier this summer that a decision as to who would start would not be an easy one. Although Sayin takes the role of QB1, it won't be without a collaborative effort.

But guys have taken leadership roles," Day said at Big Ten Media Days. "They’ve been throwing with the wide receivers. I ask those guys all the time, and they like both of them. We’re going to put them in as many competitive situations as we possibly can to figure out who handles that the best because we’ve got to be on point Week 1. We can’t be messing around. I know that we’ll need all of those guys in that room this year.”

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This season is set to be an interesting one, as the Buckeyes seek back-to-back national titles.

For now, only time will tell.

Zain Bando

Zain Bando is a freelance writer for The Sporting News. He is a graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Northwestern's Medill School of Journalism. Over the years, Bando has written about various beats surrounding Illinois, Northwestern, and Kansas State Athletics but sticks to the Big Ten as his primary expertise. Outside of collegiate reporting, Bando covers MMA and boxing for MMA Knockout On Sports Illustrated and hosts/co-hosts two podcasts as part of the Empty The Bench Podcast Network – Bando's Breakdowns and The MMA Outsiders, which air weekly on YouTube and are distributed on all podcast platforms Wednesday nights and Friday afternoons. Bando is a Chicago Suburban native and a member of the FWAA and USBWA, continuing to hone his professional skills as a sports journalist and media personality. Since June 2019, Bando's byline has been featured in numerous media outlets, including MSN, Yardbarker, Deadspin, FanSided, BJPenn.com, Bridge Media Network (Sports News Highlights), Mike Farrell Sports, Reuters, and more. When Bando is not writing, he binges on old UFC fights, spends time with family and friends, memorizes every Super Bowl, and manifests all the places he still has to travel to (even while bringing his laptop).