Ryan Day's Ohio State sends a stern message to CFB world by adding competition for Julian Sayin

Reigning national champion Ohio State Buckeyes enter the 2025 college football season aiming to defend their title.

However, they will be going this without quarterback Will Howard, who is now in the NFL with the Pittsburgh Steelers. Luckily for Ryan Day and his Buckeyes, top prospect Julian Sayin is likely to take the reins as the program's QB1.

On Tuesday, the Buckeyes announced they had brought another quarterback to the program. This adds to the competition for Sayin to stay in the role and makes the Ohio State quarterback room slightly crowded.

"Ohio State has added a fourth scholarship quarterback to its 2025 roster as Houston Christian transfer Eli Brickhandler has committed to the Buckeyes."

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Eli Brickhandler will be coming into the Buckeyes program as an experienced player. He started his career in 2022 with the North Carolina A&T Aggies, spending two seasons with the program and having limited success with the team. Then, for the 2024 season, he transferred to Houston Christian, where he was one of numerous quarterbacks on the Huskies roster.

Here, Brickhandler would be able to have his best season so far. He threw for 557 yards (going 38 from 77 attempts) with four touchdowns and two interceptions. While these passing numbers are not great (and are not the standard that one should expect a quarterback for Ohio State should have), Brickhandler makes up for this with his rushing abilities.

During the same season, Brickhandler rushed for 264 yards on 63 attempts, scoring one touchdown. This ability is key in today's college football landscape, and dual-threat QBs who can pass and run with the ball become the norm.

Who are the other quarterbacks Ryan Day has at Ohio State?

Eli Brickhandler becomes the fourth quarterback in the Ohio State quarterback room for the 2025 season. This means there may be a lot of competition for the starting and backup quarterback roles for the current college football champions. But, who is he up against for these roles?

Julian Sayin

Julian Sayin is the most likely pick for the starting quarterback in 2025. He was recruited by the Buckeyes before the 2024 season and is a five-star prospect. He has had limited playtime so far, but we should see a strong performance from the sophomore in 2025.

Lincoln Kleinholz

Lincoln Kleinholz did not play at all in 2024 (and was redshirted). He did make 111 yards for the Buckeyes during the 2023 season, in his only contribution to the program so far.

Travis St.Clair

Travis St Clair is the true freshman of the group and comes in as a five-star rated prospect and one of the best members of the 2025 class. If he is not redshirted, one should expect him to be a contender for at least the backup QB role.

About the author

Ben Tredinnick is a journalist who covers college football and college basketball at Sportskeeda who is currently studying for a masters in Data Science. His degree in Psychology has helped him gain an in-depth understanding of the minds of coaches.

Ben has been involved in sports writing since 2022 and covered the NFL previously. His strengths include providing in-depth profiles of athletes and coaches, with a particular focus on development, and looking at which teams could be in the hunt for today's college stars.

Ben enjoys following college sports more than the NBA or NFL because there is more variation in terms of playstyles. The tournaments are often more competitive than the major leagues, and due to the constant turnover of players, there are rarely any "superteams" in college sports.

He prioritizes research, looks at multiple sources and publications to make sure he gets the full picture of the story before writing. He tries not to write from a one-sided perspective to allow the reader to be able to make their mind up on their own.

A Texas Longhorns fan, as well as a massive New York Giants fan, some of his favorite college players of all time are Arch Manning, Tim Tebow and Reggie Bush.

When he is not working, Ben enjoys watching films (especially Godzilla) and spending time with his cat.

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Edited by Alvin Amansec