Julian Sayin went through a roller coaster of emotions in the last three weeks of the 2025 season. From becoming a Heisman contender to then painfully losing against Indiana and Miami, the first-year starter came under heavy scrutiny for his mistakes. Fresh off that experience, the Buckeyes’ QB1 is returning to prove the naysayers wrong. He is starting his redemption journey with self-introspection, accountability, and, most importantly, taking charge of the offense.

In his media remarks after the second spring practice, Sayin discussed areas of his game he needs to improve, such as using his legs more. More importantly, he has “a lot of responsibility at the line of scrimmage.” Sayin is now increasingly telling his receivers their designated routes and where he wants them to go, as he has finally recognized that he is “the quarterback.” But he isn’t doing it alone. He is also rallying Jeremiah Smith to lead the team’s offense.

Last year, Julian Sayin was flawless in the first 11 games of the season. He was delivering dimes downfield like he was playing in his backyard. Moved fluidly in the pocket and notched an impressive 77 percent passing efficiency. Those 3,610 passing yards showed his prowess, and he scorched some elite defenses like Michigan and Penn State. However, it all came crashing down in the Big 10 Championship game against Indiana.

His performance was not statistically bad, but lacked the “clutch” factor needed to overcome a stingy Hoosiers defense. Sayin went 21-of-29 for 258 yards, 1 TD, and 1 INT. He had a passing percentage of 72.4%. But he struggled with heavy defensive pressure and was sacked 5 times for a loss of 29 yards.

Red Zone failures were also evident as Ohio State was unable to score on two late drives of over 70 yards. On a critical 3rd-and-1 in the red zone, Sayin missed an open Bo Jackson out of the backfield, instead throwing an incomplete pass to Bennett Christian. Sayin was also stopped short on a crucial 4th-and-1 quarterback sneak.

If it was only this one game then we could have seen it as an unfortunate exception. But Sayin followed this up with another subpar performance against Miami in the playoffs. He was sacked another 5 times, now totaling 10 sacks in the final two games. Saying also threw a 72-yard pick-six to Miami’s Keionte Scott on a screen pass, the second-longest in CFP history. His legs were a non-factor in these two losses as he finished the season with -44 rushing yards due to the high volume of sacks. No one is winning the Heisman with such stats.

It was not all on Sayin though as Ohio State’s slow offensive tempo was lacking in urgency considering they kept the same tempo even when trailing Miami by 14 points.

Those performances screamed that Sayin still needed to develop scrambling ability and ought to improve his decision-making, as he threw a pick-six against Miami. Afterwards, Sayin’s short-yardage execution became a headache, and he squandered many fourth-down conversion attempts. The writing on the wall became clear in those two games: the Ohio State QB1 still had a lot of work to do.

“You definitely think about that, but I’m chasing to be the best version of myself,” Sayin said about his questionable plays from the 2025 season. “There are so many things I can improve on. It’s been a very fun offseason because there are so many things that we did well last year, but we can do so much better.”

Overall, Sayin looks ready to learn from his mistakes and bounce back this year. To do that, he is building a strong relationship with his offensive linemen and leaning on experienced players. Another promising development is that Sayin also has a new offensive coordinator in Arthur Smith. His elite NFL experience will come in handy in the offseason as Sayin charts his way back to Heisman contention.

Julian Sayin opens up on learning under Arthur Smith

Former Ohio State offensive coordinator Brian Hartline called the plays in the regular season, and Sayin excelled under him. It was only when Hartline accepted the USF job and Ryan Day took over as playcaller that Sayin’s worst plays occurred. But now, Arthur Smith has come in. He was the Atlanta Falcons head coach for three years and became the Steelers OC in 2024.

“Obviously, a great offensive coordinator in the NFL and someone I can learn a lot from. … It’s been great. I love working with him,” said Sayin about Arthur Smith. “As a quarterback, you’re going to have to learn new offenses and learn new verbiage and stuff like that, so it’s been great to see that new perspective.”

Even with the changes, Sayin stressed that things are not too different from how Brian Hartline ran the offense. That is not completely true as Smith is known for a “run-game guru” reputation, which is expected to revitalize the Buckeyes’ rushing attack led by Bo Jackson. This shift is intended to take pressure off Sayin, making the offense less one-dimensional and harder to blitz.

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It is also no secret that Arthur Smith loves using tight ends. This can creates high-percentage throwing lanes for Sayin over the middle and help set up explosive play-action deep balls to targets like Jeremiah Smith.

But there’s another narrative brewing among Ohio State fans. Over the last seven years, Smith’s scoring offense has broken the top 10 just twice and reached the top five in the NFL just once. Another thing that may worry Sayin is Smith’s weak passing schemes.

The 43-year-old’s passing offenses (yards per game) haven’t breached the top-15 mark once, and his 2025 Steelers’ offense notched just 202.4 passing yards per game. Can Smith fit Sayin’s pass-heavy talent into his offense? Or will Sayin have to learn to use his legs a lot more?