ESPN misses the mark with where they ranked Ohio State’s Julian Sayin in their college football QB rankings
Buckeye Nation certainly won’t approve of the reasoning for this ranking.
Ryan Day’s success with the quarterback position has been one of his best skills as the Ohio State Buckeyes head coach. Justin Fields and C.J. Stroud were both first-round picks and when things didn’t work out the best with Kyle McCord, the fix was Will Howard and he helped lead the Buckeyes to a National Championship. In 2025, things are well on their way to being successful with Julian Sayin as the guy.
Sayin just made his first road start at Washington and was a cool 22-of-28 passing with two touchdowns and no turnovers. It was a big step for the first-year starter who looks like the real deal for the Buckeyes. In the latest college football quarterback rankings at ESPN, Sayin comes in at No. 11 with a whopping four Big Ten quarterbacks ahead of him.
ESPN’s explanation of where Julian Sayin ranks is basically penalizing the Buckeyes for being good
“It’s almost impossible to grade Sayin on the same scale as everyone else. He leads the nation with a 79% completion rate, he has taken only two sacks and he’s third in success rate. He’s keeping the trains on time beautifully. But he’s also throwing mostly short passes to extremely talented receivers, and his defense has yet to allow double-digit points in a game.” – Bill Connelly, ESPN
USC’s Jayden Maiava, Indiana’s Fernando Mendoza, Oregon’s Dante Moore, and Washington’s Demond Williams Jr. are all ranked above Sayin. Ryan Day has been open and loud that the Buckeyes are purposely slowing down the game as much as they can and as a result, they’re running the least amount of offensive plays a game they have since he’s been here. Sayin answered the call in his first career start against the Texas Longhorns and is completing an outstanding 79 percent of his passes this year.
In four games played, Sayin is 78-of-99 passing for 987 yards, 10 touchdowns, and three interceptions. None of the interceptions have been very hurtful for the Buckeyes and one came against Grambling State in a 70-0 win when Sayin threw a ball that the DB simply made a good jump on. Ohio State has done a great job of protecting its quarterback and he has been sacked just two times. A lot of that has to do with his turbo quick release which you don’t often find.
Pointing out that Sayin is throwing to talented receivers shouldn’t be a knock. Ohio State has not gone deep much by plan and they’ll open it up more as the season goes on and they get into the postseason just like they did last year. Don’t expect Sayin to be ranked No. 11 if these rankings are revisited.
