Ryan Day Says Julian Sayin’s Elbow Is Healing but Not Soon: What His Timeline Means for Ohio State
Ryan Day gave an update on Julian Sayin’s elbow on his radio show Thursday, and depending on which outlet you read afterward, it was either encouraging news or a serious concern. Both readings came out of the same two sentences, and both are fair.
Day said the injury “looks to be healing” and that “for the long term we feel like we’re on a good track here.” He also said this: “It’s not gonna be next week or next month, it’s gonna take some time.” He called it “a decent outcome for us and for him.”
Read the Calendar
Ohio State plays Oregon on Saturday, Northwestern on Nov. 14, Nebraska on Nov. 21 and Michigan on Nov. 28. “Not next month” runs past all of it. Day has not formally ruled Sayin out, but he said on Oct. 20 that the program was building a plan around Sayin being unavailable for the regular season and the postseason. Nothing Thursday walked that back.
What remains open is December. A College Football Playoff game would fall outside the window Day described, and nobody has ruled that in or out. Ohio State came in at No. 12 in the first CFP rankings released Tuesday, which makes them the first team outside a 12-team field. The question of whether Sayin could play in a playoff game only matters if the Buckeyes win their way back in without him.
The Injury Itself
Sayin was hurt in the fourth quarter at Indiana on Oct. 17, with Ohio State leading 19-15. He jogged off with his right arm hanging and came back to the sideline in a sling. The program has said only that it is an elbow injury to his throwing arm.
Bill Rabinowitz reported Thursday, citing a source close to the program, that it was a fractured elbow repaired surgically with plates and screws about two weeks ago. Ohio State has not confirmed that, and Day neither confirmed nor denied it. Treat it as one reporter’s sourcing rather than an official diagnosis.
What Ohio State Lost
A great deal. Sayin was 131 of 192 for 2,007 yards with 19 touchdowns and four interceptions in seven games, a 68.2 completion rate at 10.5 yards per attempt. He finished fourth in last year’s Heisman voting after throwing for 3,610 yards and 32 touchdowns, and he arrived this season among the preseason favorites to win it.
Luke Fahey, a true freshman from Mission Viejo who was a three-star recruit and beat out Tavien St. Clair in August, has the job now. His one start was the 30-18 loss at USC on Oct. 31, where he played all 85 offensive snaps and went 21 of 38 for 260 yards with a touchdown and no interceptions. Day said afterward that the team around him was not good enough, pointing at 11 penalties for 75 yards.
Fahey’s full season line is 30 of 51 for 463 yards, three touchdowns and two interceptions across five appearances. He sounded fine about all of it on the same radio show: “That first week was definitely rough, but I’m excited to move forward.”
The Part Worth Noticing
Sayin went home to California after the injury, came back to attend the USC game in a sling, flew to Columbus with the team and has been in meetings since. Day made a point of it.
“I think it says a lot about him that he’s not just off doing his rehab,” Day said. “He’s with the team and takes his role very seriously.”
Day also said Ohio State is “starting the playoff season right now,” which is a strange thing for a 6-2 team ranked 12th to say and exactly the right thing. They have four games to climb back into a bracket they are currently outside, starting with a freshman making his second career start against a ranked Oregon team.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
