When Nick Saban announced his sudden retirement from the Alabama Crimson Tide back in January, five-star freshman quarterback Julian Sayin decided he no longer wanted to play for the Crimson Tide and transferred to the Ohio State Buckeyes instead. And it sounds like he is already impressing his new coaches.
Julian Sayin saw his first action in Ohio Stadium on Saturday afternoon as he took part in Ohio State’s annual spring game, and new Ohio State offensive coordinator Chip Kelly was quite impressed by what he saw from the young quarterback.
“Julian is a very fast processor. He really thinks very, very quickly on his feet. He makes really quick decisions. He doesn’t stick on reads. He can progress and he sees things really well for a young player,” Kelly said. “(Defensive coordinator Jim Knowles) can make a young freshman quarterback cry with some of the stuff he does. But I never saw that with Jules. And that’s been impressive is his ability to retain. Him and (freshman wide receiver Jeremiah Smith), the compliment I would say to them is if you got here and you didn’t know what class they were in, you wouldn’t say that those guys were freshmen in terms of how they picked things up.
“Sometimes freshmen act like freshmen, but the guys who are special, they don’t act like freshmen. They act like they’re football players. And those are two guys that are examples of that.”
Devin Brown and Will Howard appear to be at the top of the quarterback competition, but Sayin certainly looked impressive, especially for a player who enrolled early and should still be in high school.
About Kevin Harrish