Ryan Day praises Julian Sayin's first Ohio State start: 'We can work with that'

Ryan Day came away pretty impressed with Ohio State QB Julian Sayin following the 14-7 win over Texas. Now ranked No. 1 in the country, the Buckeyes have even more of a target on their backs, if that was even possible.

Sayin will be responsible for piloting a loaded offense with every single defense exhausting every resource to stop him and his teammates. But Day saw something in-game that gave him a lot of confidence in his young signal caller.

Taking over at the most important position, especially after the team won a title the previous season, is never easy. But despite a pedestrian stat line, Sayin didn’t make mistakes.

“I think the first thing is, when we have young quarterbacks, you ask them, ‘What did you see,’” Day said on The Herd. “And when they can come over and tell you what they saw, and then you watch the iPad after that drive, and it is exactly what he saw, that’s a heck of a great start. Like you said, I thought his feet moved well. I thought he was accurate with the ball. He made a couple off-schedule plays, and then he threw the ball away and took care of it when we needed to. All good starts. Long way to go, but we can work with that.”

Sayin completed 13 of 20 passes for 126 yards and a touchdown. But he certainly looked the part of a starting quarterback for the best team in the country.

“I was just hoping people learn I was operating the offense,” Sayin told FOX’s Tom Rinaldi. “We had some great players around me. Receivers played well, running backs played well, offensive line played well. I mean, obviously, the defense.”

Sayin praised the defense’s effort en route to the win considering the amount of talent on Texas’ offense. He made sure to credit Matt Patricia, the staff and the players for the game plan they put in place.

“I just can’t say enough about Coach Patricia and the guys,” Sayin said. “Holding seven points to Texas, it was a great time. Really proud of the defense.”

As Julian Sayin got ready to arrive on the college scene as a five-star recruit, he initially planned to play for Nick Saban at Alabama. But after the legendary coach retired, Sayin entered the transfer portal as an early enrollee and committed to Ohio State. He sat behind Will Howard on last year’s national championship team and beat out Lincoln Kienholz for the starting job this year.

Saturday marked his first collegiate start – and it came on the big stage in front of a sold-out Ohio Stadium crowd. Sayin reflected on what Saturday’s game was like and how it felt being in the middle of it all.

“It was an awesome atmosphere,” Sayin said. “Big thanks to our fans out here. Defense played well, offensive line played well. Just an awesome experience.”