Ohio State's Ryan Day Reveals Insight on QB Battle Ahead of 2025 Season

As the 2025 college football season quickly approaches, questions surrounding the Ohio State Buckeyes' quarterback situation continue to grow ahead of week one.

During an interview on The Bobby Carpenter Show this week, head coach Ryan Day revealed his thoughts on the current quarterback battle, claiming that he doesn't know the direction of the position heading into the fall.

“I would say there’s times where I’ve gone into this part of the season feeling like I know or have a feeling on where it’s going. I don’t right now,” Day stated when asked about the quarterback situation.

Despite Ohio State landing the No. 3-ranked quarterback in the 2025 recruiting cycle in Tavien St. Clair, Day made it clear that the incoming freshman is the third quarterback on the depth chart to start the season.

"I think Tavien is still a third [quarterback] right now, and he's going to grow and he has a really bright future ahead of him," Day claimed. "But he needs this preseason, he needs the first half of the season to grow."

As the highest-rated recruit in Day's pervious recruiting class, St. Clair showed plenty of potential during his time at Bellefontaine High School. The in-state talent threw for 2,536 yards and 29 touchdowns, while completing 68 percent of his attempts in 2024.

With the race seemingly down to Julian Sayin and Lincoln Kienholz, Day did not give any lean towards one quarterback.

"Julian and Lincoln have both done some really good things in the offseason," Day said. "They're getting stronger. Talking to [Director of Football Sport Performance Mickey Marotti], there's been really good leadership, the ball is coming out of their hands good right now, but we gotta go play football, and that's to me the wild card in all this."

After originally committing to Alabama, Sayin joined star safety Caleb Downs in entering the transfer portal back in 2024. And with former Buckeyes' quarterback Devin Brown transferring to Cal this offseason, all signs pointed to the five-star recruiting become the starter in 2025. However, Kienholz has stood out during the team's offseason workouts and spring game, making this an intriguing battle to watch heading into week one.