While most college football programs across the country would dream of signing a five-star quarterback out of high school, the Ohio State Buckeyes just signed two this offseason. And now, they’ll begin their competition with each other, knowing only one of them will emerge as the team’s starter.
Ohio State initially signed Air Noland out of Georgia, who was rated as a five-star quarterback by Rivals.com. But just a few weeks after he enrolled at Ohio State, the Buckeyes added one more five-star freshman when the team landed former Alabama signee Julian Sayin after he entered the transfer portal following the sudden retirement of Nick Saban.
Sayin was rated as the top quarterback in the class while Noland was ranked No. 4. With them both on the same roster, head coach Ryan Day is expecting quite a strong competition between the two of them.
“It’s gonna be a fierce competition this spring,” Day last month according to Eleven Warriors. “That’s good. It’s healthy. If you don’t want to compete, Ohio State is probably not the right place for you. It makes everybody in that room better. They will embrace it.”
Noland agreed with that assessment, saying “iron sharpens iron” when it comes to the competition between him and Sayin, revealing that the two already have a friendship going back to their time at the Elite 11 quarterback camp last summer
“We were buddies at Elite 11, where he came out and won it. But now we’ll get to put on the pads and whatnot. We’re gonna see each other the same way we saw each other at the Elite 11, but now we are teammates,” Noland said. “We’ll have to compete. We will be teammates who will push each other every day. We will battle, and we will have competitive excellence toward each other. That’s what being the best of buddies and true teammates means.”
It’s worth noting that neither player is likely to start in 2024 as Ohio State also signed Kansas State transfer quarterback Will Howard this offseason, who is expected to be the starter. But that doesn’t mean there won’t be a competition between Noland and Sayin for the backup spot.
