Buckeyes 'Excited To Build Around' Quarterback Tavien St. Clair

While some schools have to lure high school quarterbacks who live 15 minutes away from campus with a $12 million payday to come play football for them, Bellefontaine High School’s Tavien St. Clair has been coming to Ohio State football camps for years in order to earn an opportunity to be a Buckeye.

St. Clair earned that offer in the spring of 2023 and committed a couple of weeks later. Since that day, he’s been on Ohio State’s campus as much as possible. He has also consistently climbed the recruiting rankings, where he is a top 5 QB in every recruiting service, and the top player overall per Rivals.

On Wednesday, Tavien St. Clair became the first Ohio high school quarterback to sign with the Buckeyes since Joe Burrow in 2015. Looking back over the years of camp performances, there was plenty that OSU head coach Ryan Day liked about St. Clair, and it eventually led to an offer being extended and then accepted 18 months ago.

“First off, he’s from Bellefontaine, Ohio, and that is important here,” Day said. “I think he started coming in [to camp] as an eighth grader, and then came in as a freshman. Every year he was growing and growing to the point where he just continued to improve and continued to grow. You just saw some traits in him that were unique. We just felt like he separated himself from the class.”

When St. Clair committed to Ohio State in early June of 2023, Day then saw some of the leadership qualities that all quarterbacks need to have.

“From then on, he was focused on recruiting the class. You could see the leadership skills in him,” Day said. “I think he’s done a really good job of leading his own team and being somebody that is very unique in Bellefontaine. He came down for almost every spring practice to get around the guys and to see what’s going on in terms of the meetings on the field, what it looks like. When he went on to some of the camps and Elite 11s, he really carried himself very well there and competed well.”

Day has only offered a tiny handful of Ohio quarterbacks in his time at Ohio State. The Buckeyes offered two in the 2025 class, including Findlay’s Ryan Montgomery. St. Clair committed first and Montgomery ended up committing to Georgia and signing with the Bulldogs on Wednesday.

St. Clair committed early and from an hour’s drive. It was much different than quarterbacks of Day’s past, who have come from California, Arizona, Texas, Utah, Philadelphia, and the like.

“That’s the first time since I’ve been here that this has been the case,” Day said of landing an in-state quarterback. “And it has certainly allowed him an opportunity to be around this more, to get a feel for it more, and to be more prepared when he walks in the door because I think he was here for every spring practice. He was here for almost every game. And he’ll walk through the door more prepared than if he was across the country.”

Being an Ohio kid who is now on the verge of being an Ohio State quarterback creates a unique set of pressures. It’s an incredible opportunity for a player who has grown up dreaming and preparing for this day, but it’s also something that Day and St. Clair’s family have talked about.

“We’ve talked about it as a group with his family, what comes with that. We do have some experience with that,” Day said. “It’s not going to be normal for him in his town of Bellefontaine. That’s one thing when he comes here to Columbus that will be new. That’s really the case for a lot of these guys. But being the quarterback in the state of Ohio is different. We’ll have a plan for that and explain exactly what’s going on and what the expectations are and showing him what it’s supposed to look like. But for him to be down here as much as he is, I think he’s getting a feel for that already.”

Even though expectations are always high for a 5-star quarterback, Tavien St. Clair won’t be walking into an unfamiliar situation. There is already a comfort level that should accelerate his progression as a Buckeye.

“He knows what he’s stepping into because he’s around the facility as much as he is,” Day said. “It’s an easy ride for him to get here. He’s going to come in and look to compete right away. I think he’s excited to get here. I think he feels like it’s been a long recruiting process now because it has been a while. We’re obviously very excited to build around him.”