Julian Sayin, Lincoln Kienholz and where Ohio State’s quarterback battle stands after the spring: Buckeye Talk podcast

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- On this episode of Buckeye Talk, Stephen Means and Stefan Krajisnik discuss Ohio State head coach Ryan Day’s recent press conference.

The two cover topics such as future roster management and the ongoing quarterback battle between Julian Sayin and Lincoln Kienholz. They also touched on defensive tackle depth and the overall impact of the transfer portal on college football

Thanks for listening to Buckeye Talk and sign up to get text messages from experts Stephen Means, Stefan Krajisnik and Andrew Gillis at 614-350-3315. Get the insider analysis, have your voice heard on the Buckeye Talk podcast and connect with the best Buckeye community out there.

Read the automated transcript of today’s podcast below. Because it’s a computer-generated transcript, it may contain errors and misspellings.

Stephen Means (00:07.699)

Welcome back to Buck I Talk. I’m Stephen Means. That’s Stefan Kreisnick. We talk with Ryan Day on Tuesday for the first time since Ohio State Spring Games. Since Ohio State had 14 players drafted in the NFL draft over the weekend. That’s kind of a way to punctuate the spring, but also kind of look forward to what the summer months are going to look like for Ohio State where I think this is the first time he was allowed to talk publicly about Bo Atkinson. Stefan, so there were questions about that.

But then it was a lot of quarterback talk and a lot of big picture talk after that.

Stefan Krajisnik (00:43.79)

It was essentially a press conference where we could ask about anything and everything that’s happened the last four or five months. Everything was on the table.

Stephen Means (00:50.173)

Yeah. Yeah. He kind of answered all of them. I think I don’t, I don’t know if we learned a whole bunch. I think the only things we did learn were, and you asked about this, Hey, you’re kicking kids out of your program right now because you’re trying to prepare for this thing that we’re not really sure is if it’s going to be a Fisher or not. The judge has pushed it back a little bit longer about the idea of that one five number. So day is anticipating 90.

Scholarship players is like the plan going for because 105 is a lot. I don’t know if you can expect that but he did say if the judge makes a ruling and we’re only allowed to have 105 players, then we’ll have 90 players and maybe maybe some walk-ons if the judge doesn’t make a ruling. We’re still going to have 90 scholarship players and we might have up to 120 players total when you include in walk-on. So this is essentially for Ohio State bubble down to if we can have walk-ons, we’re to have them we can’t then we won’t have walk-ons.

Stefan Krajisnik (01:49.678)

Essentially it’s Ryan day has no idea when this house settlement is going to get figured out. And when it gets figured out, are we going to have roster limits immediately? And essentially what happened with guys like TC Caffe is, Hey, you’re a pretty good football player. We’d to keep you as a walk on, but I don’t want to get to July 1st or August. And I have to say, Oh, sorry, we have to cut you because of the roster limit. And now the kid can’t go anywhere. So it’s essentially day being like, Hey,

If we go to roster limits, you’re probably not going to be on the roster anymore as a walk on. Why don’t you go into the portal now when you can still leave and go play somewhere else? And it’s kind of like, I hope that all coaches are taking that approach. I really hope there’s not coaches who are being selfish and kind of saying, well, if the kid gets screwed over, he gets screwed over because I’ll keep them just in case I can keep them. I really do hope coaches are giving their players, you know, a reality check of just like, Hey, this might happen and you might not be around.

on the roster in August. So you should probably leave now when you can enter the spring portal window and go somewhere else. So I think it’s the right way for Ryan Day and his staff to approach this. think it’s kind of the, I guess, humane way to do it. It’s just like, we want to let you still be able to play and maybe you could play here, but we can’t guarantee that. So how about you just go into the portal now? And it sucks. It sucks if we’re being quite honest. I think there’s good, that’s going to come from the revenue sharing and from the house settle, man. Like I think we’re all in agreement that

Stephen Means (03:10.525)

Yeah. Yeah.

Stefan Krajisnik (03:18.358)

If an athletic department makes $300 million, it’s probably worthwhile that about 20 million of those dollars go to athletes. Like I think we’re all in agreement on that. Athletes should get their share. That’s all true. There’s a lot that’s good in the house settlement. And even the roster limit to some extent might be a good thing. But right now it kind of sucks because it’s leading to some walk-ons getting cut and having to go different places and things of that nature. that’s, that’s certainly one of the.

That’s one of the unique things about college sports that we might start losing a bit.

Stephen Means (03:50.269)

It’s a very of mice and men way to cut a player. know, very look off into the sunset, Lenny.

PORTAL!

That was the sound of the portal gun going off like a trick and Morty. He also got a chance to talk about Bo Atkinson. He just kind of said, yeah, we’re happy to have him. I didn’t think it was interesting stuff, but he mentioned that his mother has a connection to New Hampshire, which is essentially just the way that Ryan Day got his foot. He heard New Hampshire went up. Really now? That’s interesting. What school did you go to? They went to Yukon, but still it’s just interesting when you.

Ryan Day found a connection, used it, and now Larry Johnson’s got a new defensive end.

Stefan Krajisnik (04:38.274)

Yeah, if you have a player on your roster who’s thinking about transferring and he’s from New Hampshire and he’s pretty good, it’s over. It’s done.

Stephen Means (04:43.507)

He’s coming over all day. Yeah, it’s over. Dan Mullen is the only one who can combat it and he’s coaching at UNLV so he lost.

Stefan Krajisnik (04:50.958)

Yeah

Stephen Means (04:52.923)

What did you think of the way he talked about the defensive tackle depth today?

Stefan Krajisnik (04:59.246)

Well, I got the vibe that there wasn’t anyone in the portal who they thought was good enough. I know they had Troy Pikes on a visit, the Georgia Southern transfer game that I’m actually committing to South Carolina right before Ryan Day’s presser. Steven, you know better than I, I don’t know if Troy Pikes was necessarily even what they needed. Like that’s a guy who didn’t have a ton of playing time, a ton of experience at Georgia Southern. Like I don’t think.

They needed someone who was going to be at least like the third or fourth best defensive tackle on his roster. And I don’t think Troy Pikes would have been that. So maybe they went after him. Maybe they brought him in and were kind of like, eh, I don’t know about it. Maybe you’re better off going somewhere else. I think a lot of people thought there was going to be Georgia for a while and ended up being South Carolina. I think at the end of the day, and we’re actually going to, you know, ironically, now do a podcast in the near future talking about if you could take any player in college football and put them on Ohio state, who would it be?

There was nobody like that in the portal. At least I don’t think so that you’re looking at saying 100%. This is a guy that improves Ohio State’s defensive tackle room. If that’s the case, if you’re bringing like they don’t need a fifth best defensive tackle, they need a third best. And if that’s not available to portal, then Taiwan Malone, Jason Moore, Will Smith, you’re like one of these guys has to step up. And I think that that might just be my biggest takeaway from the defensive tackle room this spring is that if you can’t find someone good enough in the portal,

Someone’s just going to have to step up. And if they don’t, then you’re going be in a really tough spot because your two starters are really good. But you need a little depth at that position to be able to slow down a running game. And when you look at the teams they face, Penn State, Michigan, Texas, these are all teams are going to have pretty good rushing attacks. They’re going to test you, especially in those those middle middle quarters. And then you get to the fourth quarter and we’ll see how fresh you are. Like one of these guys behind Edric Houston and Katie McDonald just has to be better.

than they’ve been, than they’ve looked, than where they are right now. The summer, fall camp, whatever it is, one of those guys has to be better. That’s the best way to address the defensive tackle room right now.

Stephen Means (07:10.035)

I guess if you’re, cause this is what happens. Somebody goes in the portal and on Twitter, someone will be like, Hey, well I’ll see if you should take this guy. Okay. Sure. Ohio state, Ohio state needs a three and a four defensive tackle. Tai Wai Malone is a former top 100 recruit. Jason Moore is a former top 100 recruit. Both of those guys have been here for three years. They just need to be better. And that’s not completely on them. They need to be coached better. They need to be developed. By year three, you need to be able to play here.

Now, if someone pops up in the portal that you think upgrades your room, you should go take them. But I guess the proper example to use here is if you’re thinking about portal guys, if Jason Moore and Tyrone Malone were in the portal right now, do you think Ohio State would grab them?

Stefan Krajisnik (07:57.422)

Probably.

Stephen Means (07:59.345)

That’s kind of point. You have the guys in your room already that you would have grabbed out of the portal. There’s not a better option. Ohio State doesn’t seem to be in the business of just adding players for the sake of adding players. And know they added Justin Terry, but even that, that’s a guy who’s been in college football for one year. And quite frankly, probably just should have been here out of high school instead of you having three offensive linemen in your recruiting class. How about you go get a guy from Pickerington Central, even if he’s developmental.

No, it doesn’t change the fact that you missed it on David Sanders, but at least we’re not going, oh, you didn’t get to say David Sanders and you only got three offensive linemen. That changes that narrative, but from the defensive tackle standpoint, they have the numbers, Ryan, they said they have 18 defensive linemen right now. And I actually think they have more defensive tackles than they have defensive ends, which is part of the reason why they were so, yeah, let’s go get Bo Atkinson when he hopped into the portal.

So you have the number of guys, guys just have to play like their Ohio State football players, which is also, think, bleeding into the offensive line evaluation. Cause Ryan Day even said this on Tuesday, this idea of the offensive line, one more than it lost in the spring. But you take it with a grain of salt because would that have been happening if Tylee Kintyre were in the middle of that defense instead of when it’s not Edric Houston and Caden Mcdowell, it’s a series of guys who clearly have not.

taking that jump that they need them to take this year. And so I always wonder, and I should have asked this question instead of what I asked, how does the lack of development in one area impact the way you’re able to evaluate another area? And I am wondering and a little worried about how that impacts Ohio State’s offensive line. If right now it doesn’t feel like Ohio State’s confident in what it has outside of its starting defensive tackles.

Stefan Krajisnik (09:53.506)

Yeah, I guess the only counter you kind of have is that we’ve seen. Basically everyone on that offensive line, at least on the interior, go up against, you know, Texas, Tennessee. Like we’ve seen with Montgomery go up against Notre Dame like. That that’s I guess we kind of the one silver lining you can have in that I suppose, but you’re you’re definitely right where. Just a tear. think it’s a developmental project. He could be a pretty good tackle for you, but you kind of just needed a body.

Stephen Means (10:01.075)

play football. Yeah. Yeah.

Stefan Krajisnik (10:22.932)

At offensive tackle defensive tackle like you’ve got more than enough bodies. Frankly, I. If they had gone out and landed someone at defensive tackling the portal so when they thought could be the third best guy, I wonder if one of those defensive tackles that we’ve just talked about would have left. Maybe because you have enough bodies where you could. I think you could lose a guy if you’re bringing in a pretty quality guy. So Justin Terry was about go out and get some depth. You need some bodies. Even Bo Atkinson was like, hey, we could maybe use a body or two. Now they happen to get a pretty good guy.

You know, that’s a very quality guy to get, but you kind of needed some bodies there. Defensive tag was where you needed a really good player. You didn’t necessarily need someone to just add to the practice squad essentially. And that just kind of wasn’t available there. So the spring portal window has been weird, man. It’s been very weird.

Stephen Means (11:09.075)

But it’s always weird because...

Stefan Krajisnik (11:11.118)

I don’t know, Spring Portal Windows has generally been quieter. This one hasn’t been quiet. It’s been quiet for Ohio State. But you look across the country, like it started with Niko and there’s been some pretty big names in the Spring Portal Window where you’re just like, okay, interesting.

Stephen Means (11:16.637)

Yeah.

Stephen Means (11:20.89)

Yeah.

Stephen Means (11:27.047)

I feel like the spring window has turned into the...

Stephen Means (11:32.851)

From the players perspective, we have leverage window, which is from the outside looking in and you read everything and you, it just seems like that’s what Nico and his family tried and his team tried to pull is we have some leverage here. What are you going to do? Go find another quarterback. Yeah, we’re going to trade you to UCLA for UCLA is quarterback. That’s what we’re going to do essentially. But the winter window, I don’t know if it’s been

weirder or it’s just things that typically happen with the transfer portal or have been much louder this time around because you’ve got a combination of what’s going on with Nico, which has created a, a butterfly effect of UCLA’s quarterback having to leave mad and eat a Malik Lavo doing what he did at Arkansas. Micah Hudson, the former five star wide receiver leaving Texas tech in the winter, transferring back to Texas tech in the summer. There’s like other, but it’s not just him. There’s

High school recruits who literally just showed up as early enrollees in January and they’re already in the portal It does seem messier in a way that seems louder Than in other years like I wonder I don’t know like the Ohio State deal with that at all did Devon probably not probably not Probably not so I won’t even say a name did early enrollee insert name here who showed up in January get to

April and go I want more money or I’m leaving or I don’t see a role here and I’m leaving All things are it’s like why you ask for my money. You haven’t played football yet. No, you don’t see a role here You’re 18. You’re not supposed to you’re supposed to be in high school right now So I think all this is probably normal. It’s just the veal the veil is being You know kind of opened up there We’re getting to see the under workings of all this stuff a little bit more than maybe any college coach would like for it to happen

Stefan Krajisnik (13:24.034)

I think Ross Bjork probably has the model that I think I liked the most. He talked to ESPN about this after one of the recent CFP meetings. There was a recent CFP meeting and they had Bjork, the AD from Notre Dame, the AD from Texas and the AD from Penn State all there because they are, all four of them hosted a first round playoff game and then also made it to the final four. So they kind of.

saw the 12 team cultural playoff as in depth as any school. So that’s why those four guys were there. And after the meeting, your Bjork talked about kind of just wanting the calendar to change. think some of that probably depends on maybe moving to championship game, whatever. There’s a lot of different factors. One thing that he wants is let there be a X amount of day portal window. I think he said it in May. Maybe he said April, maybe he said May. can’t remember.

That should be the only portal window for fall sports because in the new revenue sharing era, the contract you’re going to have with your school is essentially going to be a fiscal year. You’re going to go from July 1st through June 30th. Like that’s, that’s your contract for that year. Like, okay, Ohio States paying you $2 million to be a quarterback from July 1st to June 30th. So it makes a lot more sense. Why would guys enter the portal?

and start signing contracts in December, if their contract runs through June, why not just have a portal window in May where it’s like, okay, Bo Atkinson, you want to enter the portal, that’s fine. Your contract’s coming up anyways. So you’ve got to go find yourself a new contract. That all seems to make a whole lot of sense, which means NCWA probably doesn’t like Ross Bjork’s idea.

Stephen Means (15:09.413)

No, no, no, it’s it’s too logical. So they’re not gonna do that. They’re gonna find something else. doesn’t make any sense Okay, any other non quarterback things? from today

Stefan Krajisnik (15:23.063)

check my notes.

Stefan Krajisnik (15:28.696)

She was pretty complimentary of C.J. Hicks.

Stephen Means (15:31.761)

Do people think CJ Hicks was leaving?

Stefan Krajisnik (15:34.926)

That’s the vibe I got from some of the questions.

Stephen Means (15:36.851)

Okay. I didn’t think CJ was going to leave.

Stefan Krajisnik (15:41.762)

Yeah, he praised how he’s been playing in the past game and he’s growing in the run game. I think that’s kind of what we expected, right? Like we’re like we know what CJ’s as a pass rusher. And if he’s growing in the run game, I think that’s a good thing. He was also complimentary, Matt Patricia and Tyler Boeing kind of what they’ve been able to do. he said Seth McLaughlin should have been drafted and I think he gave a pretty good analysis. He was basically like he should have been drafted. I’m sure the fact that he only plays center and the fact that he tore his Achilles probably didn’t help, but.

Stephen Means (15:47.89)

Yeah.

Stephen Means (16:01.074)

Yeah.

Stefan Krajisnik (16:09.006)

Then we’d all agree like, yeah, those two things didn’t help, but Seth McLaughlin probably should have been drafted.

Stephen Means (16:13.489)

He essentially said Tyler Bowen and Matt Patricia were kicking butt on the recruiting drill. And they are kicking butt on the recruiting drill.

Stefan Krajisnik (16:18.626)

they are. He also named a starter today, kind of. Yeah.

Stephen Means (16:23.987)

Austin Ceravelle. Yeah, he said he’s going to be a starter for us. I don’t know where yet, but he’s going to be a starter.

I yeah, I could have said that.

Stefan Krajisnik (16:33.71)

Well, when he said that, was like, was like, OK, maybe he’s kind of telling us that Searville is like slippery and right tackle. And then he started talking about good Philip Daniels has been. was like, where are you playing off the server?

Stephen Means (16:40.069)

I know, I know, no, no, no. He caught himself. Austin Cerebell is gonna be a starting red tackle. I see what he’s doing. That’s the, I gotta name everybody so nobody feels left out. Day is too honest sometimes for this job. He could just go, well, you know, we got a lot of guys in the mix. No, no, no. Austin Cerebell is gonna be a starter for us. Where? I don’t know about all that yet. I know where. I know where he’ll start.

I’ll start our right tackle because if you remember he then he started lifting off all the offensive libit. Oh, so everybody’s awesome. No, no. Austin. Sarah Bell is awesome at right tackle where he’ll be a starter for us in 2025. Okay. That’s all the non quarterback stuff. Get the text six one five six one four three four five. Oh, three three one five. As that was happening live, we were texting all that stuff at the two week free trial. Three 99 after that. Let’s take a break. And then I want to have a quarterback conversation with Stefan.

It didn’t have to be the deepest quarterback conversation, but just where we think things are with these three quarterbacks as they head into the summer here on Book Hides Off.

And we’re back here on Buckeye Talk, Stephen Means, Stefan Kreisnick, I have to talk with Ryan Day on Tuesday to wrap up the spring and kind of preview where Ohio State goes from here in the summer. Right now, Ohio State’s out on the recruiting trail for another, I think, day and a half, I think, for another day and a half. But May is going to hit, the dead period is going to hit, and then they’re going to get to June and get into all these camps and official visits, and it’ll be all recruiting. So.

Stephen Means (18:20.091)

What he said about Tabian St. Claire, Stefan, I think that’s its own pod and requires a 45 year conversation with Ryan Day on quarterback play. cause he used the question of, where’s Tabian St. Claire in his development? And it ended up with him talking about how the NFL draft evaluates quarterbacks, the difficulties of developing quarterbacks, why it is such a crap shoot and

why Ohio, why quarterbacks, if you really think about it, they don’t play a lot of football, so you don’t really know too much about them. So keeps using Tabian to have bigger conversations about quarterback play. That makes me want to have a four hour pod on what the heck are we doing with quarterbacks? And why is it that every coach in the country, especially the ones who specialize in quarterback play, feel like they get on campus and they have to unlearn everything that these quarterbacks had spent 17 years developing?

So I wanna be.

Stefan Krajisnik (19:19.438)

Yeah, I want to have Sam Bradford on the pod because Ryan Day’s apparently had a lot of, a lot of conversations with Sam Bradford about quarterback stuff.

Stephen Means (19:24.077)

the VR stuff?

Yeah, it just, was having a conversation with somebody over the weekend and obviously Stefan and I were out at the Under Armour camp watching stuff and we were having a conversation and the first thing I asked that person was, if you were a coach at a college, how many of the drills have you seen today that you would actually implement in your own practices? And they were like, absolutely none of them. Like not one of these drills. The Elite 11 stuff, they were like,

Very adamant that the way we evaluate quarterbacks in high school is not great. And the things we have quarterbacks doing in high school is not great because none of it translates to a game when instead, how about we just pull out a bunch of whiteboards and teach these guys how to read coverages instead of having them throw 40 million times a day, then their arms are tired. And then we get to the end of the camp after you spent three days killing their arms. And then we make them compete against each other. And then we choose an MVP.

There seem to be a lot of people in the college football sphere who don’t like the way we go about quarterback with high school kids. And so because of that, you think about Tabian St. Clair, who just spent the last 18 years of his life doing, going left when he should have been going right. And now he has to learn how to go right. And in 12 months be ready to maybe challenge to actually win this starting quarterback job. So I don’t even, he’s...

That’s that conversation. I would love to use him as an example for that for one day, but Ryan Day saying that he thought Lincoln Kienholtz was in the lead headed into the spring game. And then Julian did what he did. Do you believe him?

Stefan Krajisnik (21:15.99)

I froze. What’d you say?

Stephen Means (21:17.607)

No, okay. I’ll just, Ryan Day said he thought Lincoln Keenholz was in the lead heading into the spring game. And then Julian Sand did what he did and Lincoln maybe didn’t have as strong of a early day. He got better throughout the day. But Ryan Day saying he thought Lincoln Keenholz was in the lead heading into April 12th. Do you believe him?

Stefan Krajisnik (21:42.146)

Yeah, because I think we saw those practices where it looked like Lincoln Keynoles was ahead.

Stefan Krajisnik (21:58.86)

I do believe them because I think we saw those practices where it looked like Lincoln Kienels was ahead and Julian Sane was not having the most crisp of performances, at least when the media was there, at least certain those open sessions, right? So.

Yeah, I think I do believe him. I also do think I believe him when he says that there’s no front runner right now.

Stephen Means (22:22.131)

But he also said that the thing we saw from Julian in the spring game is what he had been doing all spring. Cause that’s the other thing he got into. It’s not about being extraordinary. It’s not about rising to the occasion. It’s just about fall into the love of your trade. We want to see the things you’re doing in practice translates to the game. So how is that true? How is what Julian sand did on April 12th is essentially what they had been seeing for the other 14 practices, but also Lincoln was still in the lead. Does that mean that Lincoln was worse?

In practice 15 than he was the other practices?

Stefan Krajisnik (22:58.05)

I think I struggle to believe that Julian was that good in all the practices.

Stephen Means (23:02.555)

No, because I mean, we saw two of them and it wasn’t great. More the second one than the first one we saw. I didn’t think he was that bad on student appreciation day. I just think Lincoln was better.

Stefan Krajisnik (23:04.014)

Because we saw it, yeah.

Stefan Krajisnik (23:12.93)

Yeah, Lincoln look good on student appreciation day. Yeah. yeah, I don’t know. mean, I, I kind of just struggled to believe that Julian was as good all, all spring as he was in that spring game because every time we saw him, he didn’t look as good as he looked in the spring game, which I think is normal because you’re going to look like Julian saying should look better in practice 15, which happened to be the spring game. Then he did practice one or two or whatever numbers we saw. Like that, that makes sense to me.

But I don’t think he looked as good in practice one as he did practice 15.

Stephen Means (23:46.567)

Did your opinion on the quarterback battle change at all? Based on that.

Stefan Krajisnik (23:52.78)

Based on the Spring Game?

Stephen Means (23:53.927)

No, no, no, based on how Ryan Day talked about these two. Why not?

Stefan Krajisnik (23:56.208)

yeah, no, I don’t think so. I think because I think Julian saying slowly this team starter.

Stephen Means (24:06.109)

I don’t know if it was asked in the question or he brought it up, like the idea of this is maybe like Kyle and Devin, where it’s a little closer than people think it is. What’s your percentage that...

How confident are you? Scale it one to 10. Julian Sands is gonna be starting quarterback.

Stefan Krajisnik (24:27.054)

7.5.

Stephen Means (24:29.243)

rising or losing steam.

Stefan Krajisnik (24:34.19)

Probably rising.

Stephen Means (24:41.169)

I’m worried that this battle is gonna get weird.

I think Julian is gonna win it, but.

I’m just kinda, I’m a little concerned that this might get a little weirder than we’re giving it credit for.

because I don’t know if I was expecting Ryan Day to say that publicly that he thought they could hear. Cause he said that about Devin last year after it all said and Yeah, there was a point last in 2020 where I thought Devin was going to be a starting quarterback and then colleges came along strong. But it’s not like he said that in the moment that they were going through it, but I’m trying to balance.

Stephen Means (25:18.801)

How much of this is genuinely real? He’s like Lincoln’s in this thing. Lincoln genuinely was in the lead at a certain point in the spring. This is going to be a real battle and Julian is going to have to earn it versus Ryan’s got, I mean, the portal’s closed. So it’s not like Lincoln can go anywhere, but how much of it is just simply Ryan Day trying to make sure he keeps both of these guys engaged to get the best out of.

Stefan Krajisnik (25:43.182)

I’m sure there’s some of that to it.

I just think for me it goes back to like, agree, I thought there was a point in the spring where Lincoln maybe looked like he was the front runner, but also part of that was because I didn’t think Julian was looking great.

Stephen Means (25:55.571)

So was more about Julian than it was about Lincoln.

Stefan Krajisnik (25:58.146)

Yeah, I think Julian, what we saw in the spring game was something that we had not seen throughout the spring. Maybe there were moments in which they saw it that looked different to

Stephen Means (26:12.423)

So they’re in the summer. There’s gonna be throwing sessions and everything’s gonna be on their own for the most part in terms of football related stuff. They’ll be doing some summer workouts. football related stuff, it’s gonna be Julian and Lincoln trying to organize throwing sessions with the wide receivers. I would assume they start fall camp. Let’s just see here. We go to Vegas June 22nd through the 24th. It’s when Big Ten Media Day’s.

I would assume practice either starts late the next week. So I would say like July 31st or they wait till Monday and do it and started August 4th. So let’s just say August 4th right now. Let’s say August 4th we’re out there. Cause more than likely we’re going to see the first practice. We might see the first couple of practices. Let’s just say we get to see a full practice on August 4th.

Right now you are quite confident that Julian Sands is going to be the starting quarterback. I am too, but.

Paint a picture of what it looks like to where we walk out of practice on August 4th and you are no longer pretty confident that Julian’s going to be the starting court.

Stefan Krajisnik (27:29.55)

I would need to see Lincoln take a majority of the reps with the ones to take that. Cause I think the, I think the reps are still going to be somewhat divided while it’s over. Yeah. And I guarantee probably around like midway through all like a maybe around like August 20th ish is when you start seeing someone gets named the quarterback and that guy gets a majority of the first team reps. unless, unless Lincoln has taken a majority of the first team reps,

Stephen Means (27:39.409)

At least for first two weeks. Yeah.

Stefan Krajisnik (27:57.122)

I’m walking out of that practice thinking this competition is still exactly where thought it was.

And I think, think it’s smart on August 4th, that is the day we’re talking about to have Lincoln and Julian both probably split like first team reps. Like you still want to let Lincoln have like our spot in this competition, let them have a something to compete for. I, I think if, if Lincoln has a great summer, like if Lincoln has a great summer and he has a great start to fall camp and they’re dividing up the reps like

I said 7.5, that means there’s 25 % of me that still thinks that maybe Lincoln can’t win this job. Right? So you still kind of give him that opportunity. I’m just projecting that by the time you get to mid August, I think we’re just going to know that Lincoln link or that Julian is the better quarterback. And I’m 7.5 confident that he’s going to be that guy.

Stephen Means (28:33.585)

Mm-hmm.

Stephen Means (28:48.423)

I think I agree with that. The thing I asked Dave about was how a top five opponent changes your preparation. He said it was starting June. And I asked it that way because then I wanted to follow up with, there’s a change in timeline for the quarterback. He’s like, no, no, no, no. Cause it’s, there’s like a natural order to how that goes about things. Here’s my thing with day. What’s the guy with some juice, like some competitive.

I feel like every time we talked a day about Julian, it comes back to his like competitive nature more than it is his football talent. And that seemed to be the case with Kyle McCord was like, when that dude talks, does it capture your attention? Does he, does he have the command of the room? I think command was the exact phrase Ryan Day used today because he, whoever has this starting quarterback job is following a guy who had all the commands.

of the room. So they got to see what that looks like. Forget, put the talent aside. This is Ohio State. There’s a four level when it comes to talent. That’s pretty high when it comes to quarterback talent here, especially when you’re talking about guys, Ryan Day recruited at a high school and not a fifth year senior from Kansas State. And again, I

Yes, Kyle couldn’t run, but there was also an element of, do you think Kyle McCord would have pulled this team out of the hole it was in when they lost to Michigan in 2024? Right, that’s part of the, Will Howard could do that. You gotta be able to do that. That is almost equally as important as the The talent of can you throw the football is how you got to Ohio State. Whether you can start or not is whether you can like,

Stefan Krajisnik (30:19.543)

No.

Stephen Means (30:36.657)

grab the attention of the room. And I am wondering as Julian saying is still trying to come out of his shell a little bit as a guy that Ohio State kind of recruited, but not didn’t really recruit. Cause again, you remember they had Dylan Raiola for so long, they weren’t recruiting quarterbacks and they tried to get to the race with some guys when Dylan Raiola kind of went left there. So they don’t really know Julian that well. They don’t know his personality that well. They don’t know whether he’s got

dog in him for a lack of a better way of putting it. Is Julian saying a dog?

Cause it sounds like Lincoln Kinos is a dog and that’s not everything I know, but it’s part of the equation of why I asked you, did you think if Ohio State lost in 2024 with Kyle McCord as the starting quarterback, they would have galvanized themselves out of that hole in one of Natty. You just said no pretty emphatically, but the NFL just told us that Kyle McCord’s a better quarterback, even if it’s only by like seven picks. But that’s kind of the point here. Are you a dog? And also when you have your moments,

Does it come off as if like, nah, I don’t believe that. I don’t believe you’re actually like that. And I think that’s Julian Sands challenge and why Ryan Day keeps talking about it so much. So I’m with you from a talent standpoint, Julian Sands is going to be this next team. This team’s next starting quarterback. But the team ceiling might be dependent on his ability to do what Will Howard did in terms of where he sits in the hierarchy of the locker.

Can he grab people’s attention? Can he get people to galvanize behind him and believe in him versus, he can just throw some good balls around the yard.

Stefan Krajisnik (32:21.998)

Well, I think that this summer is going to be important in that sense for Julian saying, cause you know, Ryan Day was talking about wanting Mick to, you know, not just push these guys physically, but also, you know, create some competitiveness in the workouts and like do some of that with Julian. I think I just saw a video like right before Ryan Day’s presser of, think the Colts, they went to like, to Butler’s like practice facility and did like knockout and like basketball, like competition and stuff like that.

And I think the whole thing was Shane’s second was like, I want to push you guys competitively and we’re not going to play 11 on 11 football with helmets on. So why don’t we go do this? Like those Ohio state do stuff like that. Like, that bring out maybe some of that competitiveness from Julian saying, I’m sure he has it. It’s you don’t get to this level without having it, but like some guys don’t wear it on their, their sleeve, right? Like there’s different ways that guys express it. Like how do you get that out of Julian saying, I think it’s going to be massive.

Stephen Means (33:15.677)

But you don’t get to Ohio State without having it. I think you can get to Ohio State without having it.

Stefan Krajisnik (33:21.742)

There’s gotta be a little bit of competitive spirit in you to play California high school football.

Stephen Means (33:26.769)

No, fair, yeah. He’s competitive, but is it like...

You’re talking about the 1 % of the 1 % with Ohio State starting courtbacks and like every dynamic of you has to be the 1 % of the 1 % of the 1%. And if day isn’t sold on that yet, that might be the thing that holds Julian Sand back. And it also might be the thing that pushes Lincoln Keen holes up because that type of stuff can carry you when your talent is got to sit like Will Howard’s talent had a ceiling on it, but they want a natty.

Cause he’s got that dog in it.

Stefan Krajisnik (34:04.62)

And then there’s any chance they go into 2025 and the quarterback competition continues. The Texas game obviously makes it a little tougher having that week one.

Stephen Means (34:12.627)

Yeah, that’s what I think if they weren’t playing Texas week one, I’d say yes. If, let’s just say that if you, if yeah, which is why, which is why they were able to do that in 2023. Cause yes, Indiana is a big 10 game, but Indiana wasn’t what they were going to be 12 months from then. And then you had a couple of non-power for opponents where you could test it out a little bit further and be more secure in what you were heading into.

Stefan Krajisnik (34:17.986)

Like, if the schedule was like Ohio Grambling, because one guy started one game, one guy started the other game.

Stephen Means (34:42.375)

with Notre Dame, I don’t think you can do that this time around, which is why there just seems to be an urgency to create those moments as much as possible over the next couple of months here because Julian’s gotta be that. You can’t, seeing felt heard, man. And it feels like you see him, I don’t know if you hear him and feel him yet. And again, he’s 19, he’s growing into it, but then that was the thing with.

with CJ was you could see him and you could feel him, but you didn’t really hear much. There’s always no one comes in with all three. And if you do your special, your Will Howard, who was 23 years old when he came in with all those three things. So it’s a process, but the process has to be expedited because expedited because it’s Texas week one. And I’m sure that’s our occasions going through this with Archmanny right now. But Arch already has the job. He’s not trying to win the job.

Julian and Lincoln are still trying to win the job. it’s for whatever amount it’s worth having some dog in you matters. And it seems like that is more of the focus for Ohio State in a world where you’re not worried about the ability to throw the ball. You’re not worried about the him having to elevate weapons because these weapons are definitely going to elevate him, which is how we got into Max Clair conversations about, the type of weapon he could be, which is why it’s Stefan and I both said that, hey,

Maybe he’s a first round drop pick at 2026. Anything else you want to bring up?

Stefan Krajisnik (36:11.544)

terms of the no not particularly the quarterback conversations were interesting

Stephen Means (36:14.227)

This is very...

Stefan Krajisnik (36:18.766)

There’s a it’s just it’s just such a treading battle because I do I do agree I think a lot of it is intangible and I just I don’t know how much we’re gonna see that until week one against Texas

Stephen Means (36:27.931)

Yeah, it’s yeah. The thing that’s deciding this battle isn’t the thing of OK, can he make the throw? It’s the. Is he going to choke?

On a drive where you absolutely have to have it. You gotta have it right now. And do you think that Julian Sand or Lincoln Kinnos can be the guy who’s going to get it for you? Because we’re gonna find that out week one. Okay, get the text, 614-350-3315. More of a news power reaction into Ryan Day. I would love to talk with Ryan Day about that for an hour and a half. Just that idea of where that falls in the hierarchy of things that you can evaluate with a quarterback.

because it does seem like everybody you talk to about quarterback plays, like, don’t know, man, it’s kind of a crap shoot. Okay, but you’re like a quarterback group. I don’t even know what that means, dude. don’t, he’s played 12 games. I don’t know what he can and can’t do. Get the text 614-350-3315. That’ll wrap up the news pod. Tomorrow, we’re deep diving into some portal stuff over the next couple of days here. Tomorrow’s pod is, if you could have anybody in college football right now, everybody was available to transfer.

and Ohio State can add a guy one on offense, one on defense, who would you add? And later this week, we’re just kind of kind of do a threats pod of the biggest threats to Ohio State’s national title hopes in 2025. Some of those can be outside threats and some of them can be things that are happening within the program as well. Well, but everything is on the table. So get the text 614353315 to your free trial through 99. After that for Stefan Kresnik, I’m Stephen Means and that was what I talk.