Julian Sayin's Heisman Trophy path runs through Big Ten title game
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Julian Sayin delivered the dagger.
As Ohio State began pulling past Michigan in the second half of last week’s win, Sayin floated a pass over the middle of the field.
Despite the fluttering snow at Michigan Stadium, the ball arched over three Wolverines defensive backs to land in the hands of star wide receiver Carnell Tate for a 50-yard touchdown.
In his debut season as the Buckeyes’ starting quarterback, Sayin positioned himself at the forefront of the Heisman Trophy race with a perfect record and tidy stat sheets.
Then the redshirt freshman put away Michigan in a win to snap a bitter losing streak to OSU’s archrivals, the biggest boost to his candidacy for college football’s most prestigious player of the year award.
But there will be no bigger stage than the Big Ten championship game on Dec. 6. When the Buckeyes meet Indiana in the conference’s first No. 1 vs. No. 2 matchup in decades, Sayin will get to go toe to toe with Fernando Mendoza, the quarterback who helped orchestrate the Hoosiers’ first-ever perfect regular season after transferring from California last winter.
The two passers are not the sole candidates in the tight race. Vanderbilt’s Diego Pavia also put himself in contention by authoring a similar Cinderella story in the Southeastern Conference. The Commodores won 10 games for the first time in their history behind the transformative quarterback.
The hurdle for Pavia is that Vanderbilt is not in the SEC title game, sidelining him on a weekend that has an outsized influence in the final voting.
In recent decades, the conference championship weekend has often been the time when candidates clinch the award, leaving the games as their closing arguments to voters just two days before the ballots are due. The finalists are also announced on Dec. 8.
Twelve quarterbacks have lifted the Heisman Trophy since 2010, and seven did so after winning their conference championship games.
When Alabama’s Bryce Young surged past Ohio State’s C.J. Stroud to capture the trophy in 2021, it was on the heels of him throwing for a record 421 yards to upset unbeaten Georgia in the SEC championship game. Stroud did not have the extra game following the Buckeyes’ loss at Michigan.
Just four of the 12 quarterbacks were idle, and only one lost during the last weekend before ballots were due, a scenario that involved USC’s Caleb Williams in 2022 when the Trojans were upset by Utah in the Pac-12 championship game.
It makes the stakes clear for the Big Ten quarterbacks, providing them a chance to mount a final push as the competition takes a hit.
If their league’s title game settles the race, it’s also the result of mirroring numbers. No other passers in the Football Bowl Subdivision have been more efficient — Sayin has a passer rating of 184.8 and Mendoza has a rating of 183.7.
They are neck and neck in most categories. Mendoza has thrown 32 touchdowns to lead the FBS, and Sayin has tossed 30, the third-most. While Sayin has been the most accurate passer with a completion percentage of 78.9%, leaving him on pace to set a single-season record, Mendoza ranks fifth with his 72% completion percentage.
Indianapolis marks the first time the quarterbacks have crossed paths in their careers. They grew up on opposite coasts, with Mendoza from Miami and Sayin from San Diego’s North County.
But they have admired each other from afar. Mendoza saw a lot of Sayin in November as he scouted defenses. The Hoosiers’ final three conference opponents — Penn State, Wisconsin and Purdue — had also played the Buckeyes in previous weeks.
“I really respect Julian,” Mendoza said. “He is so effective, and he fits the offense perfectly. As a quarterback, I like to say stats aren’t everything, but I would say that every quarterback prides himself on completion percentage, and his completion percentage is out of this world.”
Sayin has seen Mendoza as well while watching Indiana on TV and expressed admiration for a quarterback with 31 career starts.
“He’s a really smart player,” Sayin said, “a great decision-maker with the football.”
When Sayin considered his place in a Heisman Trophy race that winds down this weekend, he dismissed it.
“I’m not really focused on outside noise,” Sayin said.
The result could be loud enough.
Joey Kaufman covers Ohio State football for The Columbus Dispatch. Email him at jkaufman@dispatch.com and follow along on Bluesky, Instagram and X for more.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio State QB Julian Sayin gets a Heisman stage in Big Ten title game
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