The Ohio State Buckeyes will still have to wait and see how long Julian Sayin might be out with his injury.
The sight of their quarterback with his throwing arm in a sling on Saturday at Indiana was the kind that can certainly shake up a season.
But there is at least one way to look at the injury with a glass-half-full mentality, and that’s because the timing could’ve been worse.
For one, Sayin could’ve gotten hurt earlier on Saturday, at a time that potentially would’ve led to an Ohio State loss to the Hoosiers.
But there’s more than that. The schedule made this the right window for the Buckeyes, at least a little bit.
Julian Sayin Injury Timing
The key here is that Ohio State has a bye this upcoming weekend, on Saturday, Oct. 24.
So instead of having to turn around and play a game immediately this upcoming Saturday, they won’t be back in action until Halloween weekend against USC.
That doesn’t mean Sayin is going to heal any faster. It just means it could be one less game that he misses.
It also means that Ohio State has extra time to figure out its quarterback situation going forward. If they’re going to be without Sayin for a while, it’s pivotal that the Buckeyes get the QB decision right.
With an extra week, that’s more evaluation time and also more preparation time for whoever is going to get the nod as the temporary new QB1.
Ohio State Backup QBs
Ohio State turned to Luke Fahey to close out the win at Indiana. Fahey didn’t put any positive statistics on the stat sheet, but he didn’t do anything bad with the football, and when Nick Marsh’s foot was out of bounds for Indiana on a potential go-ahead TD catch, it ensured Fahey would close out the game with a win.
Still, there are some questions among the Buckeyes fan base over whether the actual answer is Tavien St. Clair, who likely has more physical tools than Fahey.
Ryan Day turned to Fahey and not St. Clair, which is an early indication of where things stand on the QB depth chart in Columbus. They’ve also got a couple of other quarterbacks on campus, although it’s unlikely Ohio State would go beyond Fahey and St. Clair.
There are a few different ways the Buckeyes could approach the bye week. They could go into full-on QB competition mode, or they could fully embrace one guy and do everything in their power to spend two weeks getting him ready.
But the good news is that the bye week exists at all. It gives Ohio State a chance to keep the ship stable even without its starting quarterback available at the moment. There definitely could’ve been worse timing for Sayin’s injury, if it had to happen at all.
Ohio State Catches a Break With Julian Sayin Injury Timing