When Ohio State starting quarterback Julian Sayin went down with an injury, little detail was provided about the prognosis or what exactly happened. Right or wrong, head coach Ryan Day has never been very forthcoming about injuries to OSU players, preferring to leave that up to the player and his family, and there's really nothing wrong with that at all.
So, we were left to wonder how long Sayin would be out, with the timeline being deemed "indefinitely." And while many took that to mean the rest of the season, we didn't really know, and still don't to this day.
However, according to a report from Bill Rabinowitz of the Dispatch, and some comments from Day on radio Thursday, we now have a little more knowledge of the situation. Not a crystal-clear
prognosis by any means, but at least a little something more to go by.
According to Rabinowitz (subscription may be required), who spoke to sources close to the program, Sayin suffered a fractured elbow in the fourth quarter against Indiana and had a procedure almost two weeks ago to help repair it, including the insertion of plates and screws. And while that sounds like a long-term thing, and one can hardly classify it as a short-term bump or bruise, it appears as though Sayin's recovery may be ahead of schedule, or at least going along better than some of the alternatives.
“All things considered, the outcome with different options that we were kind of going into the situation thinking it could be, I think this has been a decent outcome for us and for him,” Day said on his radio show. “And so we'll let him kind of go through that. But this thing looks to be healing. It's not gonna be next week or next month; it's gonna take some time, but I think certainly for the long term, we feel like we're on a good track here.”
Here’s what Ryan Day said today about Julian Sayin on his radio show:
— Bill Landis (@BillLandis25) November 5, 2026
“It’s been good to have him in the meetings, having Julian around the team. You talk through a play and say, ‘Jules, anything you can add,’ and sometimes he’ll say something. He’s got a good feel for that. He…
It still sounds like Sayin will be shelved for the rest of the year, and that the team is going to have to find a way to play as well as it can with freshman Luke Fahey running the show. Things didn't look great with the team against USC, but Day said the team and coaches feel confident about being able to win with Fahey.
“The guys came out of the game feeling like, ‘OK, we can go on a run with this quarterback here,’” Day said of Fahey. “But we got to go do it, got to go play, got to take the next step.”
That's a good thing too, because there's little room for error for Ohio State going forward after it showed up as the No. 12 team in the first release of the 2026 College Football Playoff rankings Tuesday night. The Buckeyes will likely have to win out in the regular season, and it all starts with the game against Oregon at home Saturday.
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This article originally appeared on Buckeyes Wire: More details emerge about Ohio State QB Julian Sayin and his injury
