Ryan Day: Tavien St. Clair has the tools to be Ohio State’s quarterback of the future

After a long quarterback battle, Ohio State head coach Ryan Day announced Julian Sayin as the team’s next starting quarterback. Even with that decision, however, Day is very happy with his quarterback room. That goes all the way down to the third-string quarterback Tavien St. Clair.

Day explained that St. Clair has impressed him throughout Fall Camp. So, even though he’s not ready to be the starter at Ohio State, he does have promise as the quarterback of the future.

“He’s not there right now,” Ryan Day said. “But he has made progress. I think he knows where his deficiencies are right now, and he’s been told those. That’s really what this weekend was after the scrimmage, was people were able to get feedback, figure out what the things they’ve done well are. The things they need to work on. He knows what he needs to work on.”

Tavien St. Clair was a five-star recruit in the Class of 2025. He was the fourth-ranked player and the third-ranked quarterback nationally in that recruiting cycle. With that, he’s entering just his true freshman season.

“He has all the traits. He has the tools. We think he can absolutely be the quarterback of our future,” Day said. “But he’s got a gap here that he’s got to cover. He’s working at it hard. It’s Billy’s job and my job and Hart’s job to make sure that we’re giving him everything he needs to grow, but he has the tools. Right now, he’s the clear third.”

The Ohio State quarterback battle was primarily between Julian Sayin and Lincoln Kienholz. Now that Sayin has won the job, Kienholz will settle into the backup role. Tavien St. Clair, meanwhile, will be the third-string quarterback, looking for opportunities to develop early in his career.

Ryan Day explains decision to name Julian Sayin Ohio State’s starting quarterback

There was plenty that went into deciding the quarterback battle at Ohio State. However, as Ryan Day explained, the biggest factor was the consistency that Julian Sayin plays with.

“I think you’re always looking for consistency and taking care of the football,” Ryan Day said. “And when you start with practice one in the spring and then kind of do study on the entire growth over six months, you see that there was a lot of growth made. You look at the numbers that the production, we felt like he was in a situation where he was really ready to go play in this game. We also feel that Lincoln’s ready to play. But, overall, Julian was more consistent.”