Ohio State announced Monday that former 5-star quarterback — and Alabama transfer — Julian Sayin has won the Buckeyes’ starting job. Sayin now becomes the third ex-Crimson Tide quarterback to secure a starting role elsewhere this season, joining Eli Holstein (Pitt) and Dylan Lonergan (Boston College). Of the three, though, Sayin’s play will draw the closest scrutiny from Alabama fans.
Sayin was one of the marquee signees in Nick Saban’s final recruiting class of 2024, enrolling in Tuscaloosa just weeks before Saban’s surprise retirement. His plans were immediately thrown into chaos.
Rather than bolt for the transfer portal right away, Sayin stayed on campus to see how new head coach Kalen DeBoer would handle the quarterback room. But DeBoer quickly prioritized his own guy — Austin Mack — bringing him over from Washington. The day after Mack announced he was joining Alabama, Sayin entered the portal.
Ranked as a consensus 5-star and the No. 3 quarterback in the 2024 cycle, Sayin didn’t fit the prototype of a DeBoer/Ryan Grubb passer. Alabama’s staff didn’t push to keep him. Now, Sayin has landed in Columbus and just earned the chance to start for the defending national champions.
That decision could come back to haunt DeBoer. If Sayin thrives at Ohio State, his first big roster call at Alabama — choosing Mack over Sayin — might go down as a major misstep. Mack, after all, is currently battling 5-star freshman Keelon Russell for the No. 2 spot behind Ty Simpson.
It’s possible Sayin would have lost out to Simpson as well had he stayed, but Mack’s path to ever starting in Tuscaloosa looks far murkier. Russell is widely seen as the future of the program, and his arrival may not have even happened if Sayin were still in the room. A Sayin-vs.-Russell comparison could eventually serve as the ultimate litmus test for whether DeBoer and his staff made the right call. That answer likely won’t come for at least another year.
For now, though, Alabama fans will have one eye on Columbus this fall — watching a quarterback who, in another timeline, might be the one leading the Tide into Tallahassee in less than two weeks.
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