Biggest Ohio State Football Camp Disappointment (And Why It Matters)

Ohio State opens the season against Ball State on Saturday, which officially closes fall camp. Plenty of players made their mark in August. A few went the other way. The most notable name in that second group is quarterback Tavien St. Clair.

St. Clair was never going to start this season with Julian Sayin heading into Year 2 as the starter. The expectation, though, was that St. Clair would be in the driver’s seat for 2027 if Sayin leaves for the NFL.

Ohio State is still looking for its No. 2 quarterback

St. Clair did not lock down the backup job. He is in a competition with true freshman Luke Fahey to see who backs up Sayin this season.

“If we can get them both reps in the game, we’ll try to do that,” Ryan Day said on Tuesday. “We’ll just kinda see how the game goes.”

247Sports ranked St. Clair as the No. 3 quarterback in the 2025 recruiting class. In July, The Athletic’s Manny Navarro ranked him as the No. 5 backup quarterback in college football.

“St. Clair has only taken 13 snaps and attempted two passes in his college career, but his size (6-4, 230) and potential as a former five-star recruit make him one of the country’s most tantalizing backups,” Navarro wrote. “He is in position to take over in 2027 if Julian Sayin declares for the NFL Draft.”

That ranking came before fall camp. What happened in August suggests St. Clair may not be a top-five backup this season.

Why it matters

Ohio State is loaded almost everywhere else. The backup quarterback room is the weak spot. If Sayin misses time, that competition between St. Clair and Fahey becomes the most important unresolved issue on the roster.

Ohio State has seen this movie. In 2014, Braxton Miller got hurt in camp and missed the season. J.T. Barrett took over, then Barrett went down against Michigan, and Cardale Jones finished the job. Jones led the Buckeyes through the first College Football Playoff, beating Alabama and Oregon.

That year, the backups were ready. This year, camp did not give the same answer. Saturday against Ball State is the first chance to see whether St. Clair, Fahey, or both get the snaps Day talked about — and whether the biggest disappointment of August starts to correct itself.