On Monday, Ohio State named Julian Sayin its starting quarterback for its Week 1 showdown against Texas and QB Arch Manning. During an appearance on The Herd With Colin Cowherd, former OSU head coach Urban Meyer made a bold comparison between Sayin and Manning.
“This is going to be really interesting to watch in this game,” Meyer said. “… Because you can say Arch Manning is not much different than Julian Sayin. You know, he’s not done a lot either. So you better protect these quarterbacks.
“That means don’t have many balls down the middle of the field, work the outsides and give them a bunch of easy throws to start that game, because it would be a mistake to just hand the ball to these guys and let them go play early in their careers like this.”
This season will be both Manning and Sayin’s first time as their respective team’s full-time starting quarterback. While neither QB has a surplus of collegiate experience, Manning has seen substantially more action than Sayin.
Manning has completed 63-of-his-95 career passing attempts for 969 yards and nine touchdowns, compared to two interceptions. He’s started twice for the Longhorns, and taken snaps in pivotal games, such as the SEC Championship.
In contrast, Sayin has only played in four games at the collegiate level. He’s recorded just 12 career pass attempts for 84 yards and a single touchdown. While Sayin might not be as experienced as Manning, Meyer has heard many promising things about the sophomore QB.
“The minute he walked on campus, there was comments made about Dwayne Haskins-type arm action and this great release,” Meyer said. “The ball flies out of his hands. He’s got great anticipation, accuracy. And then recently, I heard a lot about his escape ability, about being able to keep plays alive. So, everything I’m mentioning are just incredible attributes of a quarterback.
“The interesting one is [Ohio State QB2 Lincoln] Kienholz, fought his ass off, which I’m a fan of his and to see that. I hear people say, if you have two quarterbacks, you don’t have one. I’ve always disagreed with that. If you have two quarterbacks, you have two quarterbacks. So, I think at some point this will become a strength.”
It won’t be long before Arch Manning and Julian Sayin each have a chance to prove who’s the better quarterback. On Aug. 30, Texas and Ohio State will square off at noon ET. The game will air live on FOX.
