With starting quarterback Julian Sayin out until further notice, Ohio State head coach Ryan Day has passed the reins of the team to true freshman Luke Fahey. The decision has raised an eyebrow from Day’s predecessor and former boss, Urban Meyer.
On the latest episode of The Triple Option podcast, Meyer questioned why Day would give the job over to Fahey rather than the more experienced and higher-rated Tavien St. Clair. Meyer called it “perplexing” that Fahey was put into the game rather than St. Clair.
“It’s perplexing why he’s not the quarterback, why he doesn’t jog on the field when Sayin went down,” Meyer said.
Fahey vs. St. Clair
Coming out of high school in 2025, St. Clair was a five-star prospect and the No. 1 recruit out of Ohio per 247Sports. At 6-foot-4 and 235 pounds, he has prototypical quarterback size and graded as the No. 3 QB in the nation.
As a freshman, St. Clair was third-stringer behind Sayin and Lincoln Kienholz. When Kienholz transferred to Louisville, it was probably expected that St. Clair would be elevated to the backup.
Instead, the backup role went to Fahey, who most fans have noted is both smaller and less heralded than St. Clair was. Fahey was a three-star prospect out of California and is just 5-foot-11 and under 200 pounds.
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But Meyer has experience with midseason quarterback controversies. Back in 2014, when starter J.T. Barrett suffered his season-ending injury, he gave the reins over to Cardale Jones, who was also a three-star prospect, and Jones wound up leading the Buckeyes all the way to a national title.
“We went through this obviously; it’s well-documented (with) Cardale Jones,” Meyer said. “Everyone else is kind of tired, but you have to practice your ass off. And I would talk to the team, and we did, and apologize to the players and say, ‘Listen, we got to go win these next few games, and we have got to go.'”
But unlike Jones, Fahey doesn’t have a full year of college football as a backup under his belt beforehand. While neither Fahey nor St. Clair has ever taken a snap without holding a lead in a game, St. Clair has at least watched and learned for an entire year.
Will Fahey overcome the adversity and continue leading the Buckeyes on the road to a national title?
