Ohio State QB competition: ESPN's Pete Thamel reveals latest in Julian Sayin, Lincoln Kienholz battle

Ohio State has another quarterback battle ongoing coming into this fall between Julian Sayin and Lincoln Kienholz. It’s one with a lot of emphasis on it, too, as the Buckeyes begin the upcoming year.

ESPN’s Pete Thamel provided the latest on the quarterback competition at Ohio State while on ‘The Pat McAfee Show’ on Thursday. He projected that we’ll soon know their team’s answer between Sayin, the redshirt freshman, and Kienholz, the redshirt sophomore, after two weeks of fall camp to this point.

“In Columbus, I think we’ll know in the near future which way they go,” Thamel said. “It’s been an interesting race. There’s been a few of those at Ohio State in recent years.”

Whoever wins the Buckeyes’ job will be pretty inexperienced when it comes to games, with just nine appearances combined between the two. Kienholz, a former four-star and Top 15 QB in his class has been a backup to this point in his career with the program. Most notably, he had to come in for the Buckeyes as a reserve in the 2023 Cotton Bowl, going 6-17 (35.5%) for 86 yards.

Sayin, then a former Five-Star+ prospect and the No. 2 QB in his class, was a reserve last season. He played in four games where he was 5-12 (41.7%) for 84 yards and a passing touchdown.

However, regardless of who gets to be the starting quarterback to open, Thamel noted that Ohio State feels some pressure to get this right. That’s with the Buckeyes opening with that playoff rematch and a top-three matchup against No. 1 Texas at The ‘Shoe on August 30th, with no time for either Sayin or Kienholz not to be ready from the season’s first snap.

“I think there’s a little bit of pressure to kind of pick a guy because, you know, you open with Texas, right?” Thamel said. “If you remember, the two last national champions, both Michigan and Ohio State, opened with three games where they were prohibitive favorites in. It’s a different approach to the opener when you have to go and go up against a top-five team.”

Ohio State has yet to make an announcement either way between Sayin and Kienholz. Still, Thamel doesn’t expect it to last too much longer, with a scrimmage this weekend, maybe leading to a decision by next week about the Buckeyes’ QB1.

“It’ll be interesting to see how that unfolds,” Thamel said. “I believe there’s a scrimmage there on Saturday and those are always, obviously, giant pieces of empirical evidence in the quarterback battles.”