These freshmen QBs have very high expectations at Ohio State

It can't be easy to be a quarterback at Ohio State. The expectations are high. Like, Heisman Trophy- and national championship high.

That's the burden of playing for one of the biggest programs in college football and those are the expectations that freshman quarterbacks Julian Sayin and Air Noland will be dealing with this season.

Both are former highly ranked recruits (Sayin was a five-star and Noland a four-star) but it's back to square one now that they're in Columbus.

“They’re learning what to do, that’s the first level," head coach Ryan Day said after the first day of spring practice, discussing his two young quarterbacks (h/t On3). "We’ve talked about this before, the first level is what to do, and then how to do it and why you’re doing it, and what is the first thing right now. That being said, make great decisions, be confident, and take care of the football is gonna be the things they’ve got to do.”

Both Sayin and Noland will be firmly down on the depth chart behind Kansas State transfer Will Howard (2,643 yards and 24 touchdowns last season), last year's backup, Devin Brown and redshirt freshman Lincoln Kienholz.

Still, don't expect Day to take it easy on them. Howard or Brown will likely end up being the starter, but if Sayin or Noland want to be next in line, they're going to have to work for it and quickly learn how to grow into Ohio State's system.

“Compete your tail off, trust it, but they also have to put in a little extra work because they don’t know. So when you walk on the field can you take a meeting to the field or do you need three or four reps in order to say okay, now I’ve got it,” Day said. “As opposed to the real good ones it’s one mistake, I learn from it, I move on, and I can continue to build fast. If we can see those type of trends then we’ll have something.”