Julian Sayin vs. Illinois’ secondary decided the game

NCAAF College Football News, Photos, Stats, Scores, Schedule & Videos...

Jeremiah Smith is going to dominate the conversation after this one, and he deserves every bit of it.

12 catches, 217 yards and four touchdowns is the kind of stat line that gets a receiver invited to New York in December. For me, the matchup that decided Ohio State’s 42-19 win over Illinois was Julian Sayin against the Fighting Illini’s defensive backs.

Sayin was in control from the opening drive, completing 27-of-36 passes for 367 yards and four touchdowns, averaging 10.2 yards per attempt without an interception. He also ran seven times for a career high 29 yards and a touchdown, giving him five total touchdowns, another career high.

Illinois never sacked him, even with starting right tackle Phillip Daniels out. Ohio State converted 8-of-12 third downs and went a perfect 4-for-4 in the red zone.

That is why this is the matchup that decided this game for me. Illinois’ secondary had experience, leadership and All-Big Ten credentials, and Sayin picked them apart anyway.

Sayin answered Ryan Day’s challenge against a veteran secondary

This performance didn’t come out of nowhere. Earlier this week, Ryan Day said the Buckeyes were just 12-of-33 on third down this season and that third down and the red zone were where the biggest issues had shown up.

Day also pointed to moments against Kent State where Sayin got jammed up in the pocket and passed on chances to escape, including a fourth-down sack he probably should have scrambled out of.

Sayin said after the game that the coaches showed him those missed opportunities and pushed him to take them and run. Against Illinois, he did.

Sayin scrambled three times, converted three quarterback sneaks and kept the ball on a designed run. The biggest of those came on a first-half third down, when he spun himself into trouble, slipped free of two Illini defenders and picked up the first down himself.

It was the first game this season that Sayin finished with positive rushing yardage after entering Saturday at -22 yards on nine carries. Nobody is going to mistake Sayin for a dual-threat quarterback, and he doesn’t need to be one. He just needs to make defenses pay when they give him open field.

On Saturday, he did.

The more impressive part for me was who he did it against. Matthew Bailey is a two-time All-Big Ten safety who led Illinois in tackles in each of the previous two seasons. Xavier Scott was a first-team All-Big Ten selection in 2024 before missing the final 10 games of 2025 with an injury. Both are team captains, and on paper this is one of the better secondaries the Buckeyes will see all season.

Bailey finished with 14 tackles, the most of anyone on the field. Although in my opinion that isn’t a compliment to the Illinois defense. When your safety leads the game in tackles, it usually means he’s spending the afternoon chasing people.

Despite all their experience and accolades, Sayin went after this Illinois secondary immediately.

On the opening drive, Smith got leverage on Juice Clarke for a 7-yard touchdown. On the next possession, Sayin hit Smith on a go route down the middle, and Smith spun safety Mac Resetich around at the 20 and walked in for a 72-yard score.

Sayin said they had worked on that exact route all week, and both he and Smith said they knew it was a touchdown as soon as they saw Illinois’ look. That’s not luck. That’s a quarterback seeing the coverage and already knowing the answer.

The drive that best explains this game came next. Up 14-7, Ohio State went 96 yards in 19 plays and took 8:31 off the clock, finishing with Smith’s toe-tap touchdown from 9 yards out.

A drive like that isn’t built on a couple of explosive plays. It’s built on a quarterback converting third down after third down. Sayin then followed it with a two-minute drill, going 6-of-7 for 75 yards in 1:17 before scrambling in from 7 yards out with 15 seconds left.

Ohio State took a 28-10 lead into halftime, and the offensive linemen were in the end zone celebrating with him before he could get up.

This was not the same offense that lost at Texas

The contrast with two weeks ago is impossible to ignore.

In Austin, Sayin went 12-of-16 for 192 yards in the first half, then 5-of-16 after halftime while Texas erased a 23-3 fourth-quarter deficit. He overthrew a wide open Devin McCuin for what would have been a touchdown. Just as concerning, he completed only two passes all night to wide receivers not named Jeremiah Smith.

I wrote last week that the game against Kent State finally showed what this receiver room could be, and Sayin was sharp in that game, going 18-of-22 for 241 yards and two touchdowns. The obvious caveat was that it was Kent State, a team coming off a 57-0 loss to South Carolina.

Illinois was the first real test of whether that balance could hold up against a Big Ten defense. I think it’s safe to say it did.

Smith caught 12 passes for 217 yards, and the rest of the offense added 15 catches for 150 yards. McCuin and Nate Roberts each caught four passes, running back Bo Jackson added three, and Phillip Bell, Brock Boyd, Chris Henry Jr. and Hunter Welcing all got involved too.

When Illinois gave Smith one-on-one looks, Sayin took them. When the Illini rolled coverage his way, Sayin went somewhere else. That’s the difference between having one elite receiver and having a multiple offense that’s genuinely hard to defend.

It also mattered because the defense wasn’t at its best.

Illinois gained 462 yards, the most Ohio State has allowed since its 2024 regular-season loss at Oregon, and they held the ball for more than half the game. On an afternoon like that, the offense couldn’t afford to waste possessions, and they didn’t.

Sayin starting to look like the quarterback Ohio State needs

The expectations for Sayin entering 2026 were enormous, and for good reason. As a first-year starter in 2025, he led the nation with a 77.0 completion percentage, threw for 3,610 yards, 32 touchdowns and eight interceptions, and was the only underclassman among the four Heisman finalists.

Through four games this season, he has 1,206 passing yards, 10 touchdown passes and just one interception, which was the Hail Mary on the final play at Texas. He’s completing 72.2% of his passes and already has two rushing touchdowns after going without one all of last season.

The efficiency was always going to be there. The legs are the new part.

That new part is about to get tested. Ohio State goes to No. 17 Iowa next Saturday at 3:30 p.m. It’s the Buckeyes first trip to Kinnick Stadium since a 55-24 loss there in 2017.

After that comes Maryland, then a trip to Indiana, the team that beat the Buckeyes in last year’s Big Ten title game. Then USC on the road, Oregon at home and Michigan to close the regular season are still waiting after that.

Those defenses will pressure Sayin, take Smith away and dare Ohio State to beat them any other way.

After Saturday, Sayin looks like he can. Smith was the star, and nobody should take that away from him. But Sayin was the reason Ohio State could keep feeding him while forcing Illinois to defend every blade of grass on the field.

Illinois had the experience in the secondary, but Sayin had the answers.

More at NCAAF College Football News, Photos, Stats, Scores, Schedule & Videos