Julian Sayin Is a Heisman Frontrunner and He Has Not Started Yet: Ohio State QB Faces the Hype
Julian Sayin has never played a real season as Ohio State’s starting quarterback. He is already a Heisman frontrunner.
Sportsbooks put Sayin at +1200 to win the 2026 Heisman, which is fourth best in the country. Only Arch Manning, CJ Carr, and Trinidad Chambliss have shorter odds. That is what happens when you finish fourth in the voting as a redshirt freshman and then return to the top program in the country.
Now the real work begins.
Sayin was efficient last year. He was a Heisman finalist all the way through the regular season before Ohio State lost the Big Ten Championship to Indiana. Fernando Mendoza took the trophy, and Sayin was left as the “what if” story from a program that expected to win it all. He finished with 432 Heisman voting points and a lot of unfinished business.
Ohio State returns real talent. Jeremiah Smith, the best receiver in college football, is back for another season and might be a top 5 pick in the 2027 NFL Draft. The offensive line has continuity. The tight end room is deep. The running game is fine. Sayin has everything he needs.
The question is whether he can deliver on the hype. Every returning quarterback with expectations this high has to face the pressure. Manning felt it last year. He was the preseason Heisman favorite at +600, and he did not even make the final ceremony. Sayin will hear his name every week, and he cannot afford the same collapse.
What Sayin has going for him: he is a great decision maker, his arm talent is real, and he plays in a system that maximizes his gifts. Ryan Day and Chip Kelly built an offense around him last year that leaned on rhythm and quick outlets. Both are still in place. That is the closest thing to a Heisman infrastructure a college quarterback can ask for.
What Sayin has going against him: the Big Ten schedule. Ohio State plays Oregon, Penn State, and Michigan in November. Any one of those games can end a Heisman campaign. It ended his last year. Indiana is back too, and the Hoosiers might be a top 10 team according to ESPN’s FPI.
There is also the Jeremiah Smith factor. Smith is a Heisman candidate himself. He is going to eat production from Sayin’s numbers. When Smith goes off, Sayin’s stats jump, but voters sometimes hand the trophy to the guy who does the highlight catching. Last year, Ohio State’s offensive load was distributed. This year, if Smith has a monster season, he might steal narrative from Sayin the same way DeVonta Smith once did to Mac Jones at Alabama.
The prediction here: Sayin throws for over 4,000 yards and 40 touchdowns. He finishes in the top 5 in Heisman voting again. Ohio State makes the Big Ten Championship. Whether he wins the trophy will come down to a single big moment, probably against Michigan or in the playoff.
Buckeyes fans should be optimistic. Ohio State opens the season as the No. 1 team in ESPN’s FPI, ahead of Oregon, Notre Dame, Georgia, and Texas. Their schedule is manageable through October. The path to the College Football Playoff is clear.
Sayin is the guy. He was the guy last year, and he is the guy this year. The question is whether the guy becomes a legend. That answer starts in Columbus in August.
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.
