‘Fast Processor’ Julian Sayin Not Your Typical Freshman

It only took 12 practices for Ohio State true freshman quarterback Julian Sayin to lose his black stripe. It wasn’t the first sign that he wasn’t a typical true freshman, but it was certainly further confirmation.

Sayin became the first Buckeye quarterback to lose his black stripe in the spring, which can’t even be characterized as “rarefied air” because he’s the only one who has done it.

Sayin has been creating a stir since the day he announced his transfer to Ohio State after signing with Alabama and former head coach Nick Saban. After Saban retired, Sayin went looking for a head coach that he had a familiarity with. He ended up with the Buckeyes and Ryan Day.

It didn’t hurt that Bill O’Brien was the OSU offensive coordinator at the time. O’Brien had recruited Sayin while he was the offensive coordinator at Alabama in 2022. O’Brien didn’t stay long, of course, leaving shortly after arriving to become the new head coach at Boston College. Day then hired UCLA head coach Chip Kelly, who also had a relationship with Sayin, who is from California.

Sayin was one of five scholarship quarterbacks in Kelly’s position room this spring. All five were put through their paces, and more often than not, Sayin was able to keep up with upperclassmen Devin Brown and Will Howard. There were also times when he maybe even did a little more than that.

Again, not something that is typically done by a true freshman quarterback. How was he able to keep up?

“Julian is a very fast processor. He really thinks very, very quickly on his feet,” Kelly said following spring ball. “He makes really quick decisions, he doesn’t stick on one read. He can progress and he sees things really well for a young player.”

Learning the offense is just one aspect of a new quarterback’s baptism. He has to be able to apply that offense to the defense he is facing. Under defensive coordinator Jim Knowles, the Buckeyes are expected to have one of the best defenses in the nation this year. And while Sayin may not have been going against the first-team defense all that often, the moving parts are still difficult to overcome.

“Not having been exposed to a lot of college defenses, and especially what Jim does — Jim can make a young freshman quarterback cry with some of the stuff he does — but I never saw that with Jules and that’s been impressive, just his ability to retain,” Kelly said.

Julian Sayin joined receiver Jeremiah “JJ” Smith as the only two true freshmen to lose their black stripes in the spring this year. Smith lost his faster than any Buckeye since Urban Meyer brought the tradition to Ohio State in 2012.

Neither player earned the honor by happenstance. They earned it by being unique. By not being typical.

For Sayin, this spring was confirmation for the coaches, but that doesn’t mean they weren’t also very impressed.

“Him and JJ, the compliment I would say is if you got here and you didn’t know what class they were in, you wouldn’t say that those guys were freshmen in terms of how they picked things up,” Kelly said. “Sometimes freshmen act like freshmen, but the guys who are special, they don’t act like freshmen. No, they act like they’re football players. And those are two guys that are examples of that.”

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