Tavien St. Clair arrived at Ohio State as a five-star recruit. The relatively local kid, from Bellefontaine in the Buckeye State, was meant to be the next OSU star at the quarterback position.
He redshirted a season ago, and when Julian Sayin left Saturday’s game at Indiana with an injury, it wasn’t St. Clair who came in. It was Luke Fahey who helped close the game out.
Sayin is likely going to have to miss some time after spending the fourth quarter with his right arm in a sling.
The Buckeyes turned to Fahey on Saturday, but that doesn’t mean he’s the automatic starter going forward.
St. Clair is the guy with all the hype, and it’s for a reason. He could still get tasked with keeping the Buckeyes’ season afloat.
The Case for Tavien St. Clair
The Buckeyes have a bye, which gives them a chance to prepare for a game against USC in two weeks.
And with that time, they could — if they want — install St. Clair as the temporary starter.
“Even though true freshman Luke Fahey has clearly earned the coaching staff’s trust as Sayin’s primary backup, I can’t help but believe that Ohio State’s best chance to continue competing with the likes of USC, Oregon, and Michigan is to give sophomore Tavien St. Clair the opportunity to take over the offense,” writes Ohio State reporter Matt Tamanini of Land-Grant Holy Land.
While it’s not clear how long Sayin will be out, the point is fair — Ohio State needs to figure out which of their remaining QBs gives them not just a chance to stick around in a game, but the best chance to win a national title.
“If Sayin goes down in the middle of a close game, as he did on Saturday in Bloomington, you want someone who can immediately step into the huddle, understand the offense, make the right decisions, and avoid catastrophic mistakes,” Tamanini writes. “But when you have time to prepare a new starter, you have the opportunity to build an offense around what that quarterback does best, rather than simply asking him to execute the existing playbook. And when you have a bye week naturally built into that preparation process, I think you have to seriously consider which guy gives your offense the highest ceiling. And St. Clair has some pretty intriguing things that he does exceptionally well.”
Tavien St. Clair’s Recruiting Hype
You don’t end up as a five-star recruit for no reason. St. Clair was a known commodity in Ohio throughout high school and earned all his hype.
“At 6-foot-4 and 235 pounds, the former five-star prospect has five inches and nearly 30 pounds on Fahey (at least according to their official listings), along with the kind of arm strength that allows him to make throws all over the field,” Tamanini writes. “We saw glimpses of that potential during April’s spring game, when St. Clair completed 9 of 21 passes for 166 yards and a touchdown, including a gorgeous 40-yard scoring strike to Chris Henry Jr.”
Either way that Ohio State chooses to go here will come with some risk. The case for St. Clair is that he might bring with him a high-end potential reward, too.
Don’t Count Out Tavien St. Clair After Ohio State QB Julian Sayin Injury