"We have some really talented guys in that room": Ryan Day unfazed by Ohio State's QB1 situation after Will Howard's exit

Reports suggest that Julian Sayin is set to be Ryan Day's next quarterback at Ohio State. With the end of Will Howard's college career and the departure via the transfer portal of Devin Brown and Air Noland, the path seems clear for the five-star recruit and transfer to take center stage next season for the reigning national champions.

Sayin's odds to be QB1 increased this week when Day called into a show on the sports radio network, 97.1 The Fan. On the show, Day said that he would look to a homegrown option to replace Howard and spoke about how he had asked his young QBs to observe how the championship-winning team's QBs prepared for the title game and to take lessons from that.

"'So when you guys come back in about two weeks, you gotta look different, you gotta walk different, you gotta act different, because now you’re fighting to become the starting quarterback at Ohio State,'" Day said while speaking about what he told his QBs. "We have some really talented guys in that room, and, you know, looking forward to see what the competition brings."

Sayin was initially slated to attend Alabama, enrolling there in January 2024, but in the chaos following Nick Saban's retirement, the player decided to join the transfer portal and immediately transferred to Ohio State.

The Buckeyes quarterback room will also have Lincoln Keinholz and five-star freshman Tavien St. Clair. Kienholz was a four-star recruit in the class of 2023 and was considered the best player in the state of South Dakota and the 11th-best QB in the nation. St. Clair on the other hand, is ranked No. 1 in the state of Ohio in the 2025 class and is the third-best footballer from his class according to 247 Sports.

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Ryan Day on what it meant to have Chip Kelly as an offensive coordinator in 2024

Ohio State Buckeyes head coach Ryan Day talks to offensive coordinator Chip Kelly - Source: Imagn

In his post-game press conference after the National Championship win, Ryan Day spoke about what it meant to have someone as experienced as Chip Kelly in the offensive coordinator role for the season:

"For him to come and leave the head coaching position, to come work with me meant a lot."

"He’s obviously someone who’s a mentor to me, and (I) certainly would not be where I am without him," Day added. "He has just a great feel for the game. He really helped me this year, (and I) spent more time outside of the quarterback room. Certainly, I was involved very much with the offense, but it allowed me to ... spend more time with the guys on defense."

Ryan Day was coached by Chip Kelly at New Hampshire, where the former was an aspiring quarterback and the latter an offensive line coach and later an offensive coordinator. Day also worked twice under Kelly in the NFL as a quarterbacks coach with the Philadelphia Eagles and the San Francisco 49ers.