Gorbett’s Orbit: Lincoln Kienholz Is Overlooked in Ohio State’s QB Battle

If Ohio State’s quarterback battle is a two-horse race between Julian Sayin and Lincoln Kienholz, then in the eyes of some Buckeye fans, the former five-star Sayin is a perfect, thoroughbred, while Kienholz is a donkey with two broken legs. That may be an exaggeration, but for many Buckeye fans, it is all but a foregone conclusion that Sayin will start in the Buckeyes’ monumental season-opening matchup with Texas, even though I view him as the second-best option at the position.

I understand fans clamoring for Sayin to start. The former Alabama signee was a top-10 recruit in the country coming out of high school, and has already earned the respect and praise of current and former Buckeye teammates. Most recently, it was superstar receiver Jeremiah Smith, who praised Sayin’s arm and intelligence.

“That arm is different,” Smith said in an interview with The Athletic for a story published July 1. “He can make any and every throw. Just a smart quarterback. Like me, he’s a little quiet. But he’s starting to come out of (his) shell. He’s definitely going to be a guy. It’s going to be scary for opponents.”

Smith paints a positive picture, but at least in practices made available to the media, Sayin did not steal the show. Instead, Kienholz generally looked like the more capable option for the Buckeyes. The media were only able to view a portion of spring, but head coach Ryan Day was there for all of it, and he, too, had Kienholz ahead of Sayin heading into the spring game.

“I feel like Lincoln was ahead of Julian heading into the spring game, and I thought Julian had a better spring game than Lincoln,” Day said in April. “So, it’s back and forth. This summer is going to be important. I think they’re all going to need each other.”

Even the biggest Kienholz fans would agree that Sayin was sharper in the spring game, but I believe the gap between the two young quarterbacks in that game was closer than some may think.

Sayin was on a roll for almost the entirety of the spring game, completing 17-24 passes for 175 yards and a touchdown, but Kienholz was also solid. The redshirt sophomore finished the game completing 12-of-18 passes for 158 yards and two touchdowns.

The results of the spring game were enough to even the race between Kienholz and Sayin, leaving Buckeye fans only able to project what will happen in the fall. The consensus seems to be that Sayin’s talent and room for growth will be enough for him to earn the job. This is where I think Kienholz is undervalued. Sayin’s talent cannot be questioned. His arm strength, release and mobility are all evident to anyone who watches him play, but Kienholz is talented too.

Kienholz may not have the lightning-fast release that Sayin does, but as a former three-sport athlete in high school, he’s arguably more athletic than his redshirt freshman counterpart, and standing at 6’3, he certainly possesses a bigger frame than Sayin, who is 6’1.

Kienholz was not a five-star out of high school, but he was a top-200 prospect and although he had a disappointing outing in the 2023 Cotton Bowl against Missouri, a game in which he completed 6 of 17 passes for only 86 yards, it’s important to remember Sayin wasn’t always perfect during his freshman season either. In three games against power-four opponents, Sayin finished the season completing 3-of-10 passes for 23 yards.

 The Sayin-Kienholz battle will wage on as the summer fades into fall, and perhaps Sayin will show the coaching staff enough to earn the job, but when the dust settles and the Buckeyes open the season with Texas, I think they might be best-served with Kienholz, as overlooked as he may be, as the team’s signal-caller.