Ryan Day Says Julian Sayin Won’t Be Back ‘Next Week or Next Month’

For nearly three weeks, Ohio State said as little as possible about Julian Sayin’s arm. On Thursday, the picture finally came into focus — and it is clearer and worse at the same time. The Buckeyes’ starting quarterback is healing, his long-term future is intact, and he is not walking back through the door anytime soon.

What Thursday revealed

Longtime Ohio State reporter Bill Rabinowitz reported Thursday in his Bill on the Buckeyes newsletter, citing a source close to the program, that Sayin suffered a fractured right elbow and underwent surgery nearly two weeks ago — a procedure that involved inserting plates and screws into his throwing arm, according to reports by Eleven Warriors, USA TODAY’s Buckeyes Wire and Athlon Sports. Sayin is expected to make a full recovery, but his return this season remains uncertain.

Ryan Day, speaking on his radio show Thursday, did not name the injury himself — he has consistently left that to Sayin and his family — but he gave his most detailed update yet: “All things considered, the outcome with different options that we were kind of going into the situation thinking it could be, I think this has been a decent outcome for us and for him. And so we’ll let him kind of go through that. But this thing looks to be healing. It’s not gonna be next week or next month; it’s gonna take some time, but I think certainly for the long term, we feel like we’re on a good track here.”

The season that was interrupted

Sayin was hurt in the fourth quarter of Ohio State’s 19-15 win over Indiana on October 17, leaving the game with his arm in a sling. Through seven games, the sophomore — a Heisman Trophy finalist in 2025 — had completed 68.2% of his passes for 2,007 yards, 19 touchdowns and four interceptions, and the Buckeyes’ offense ran on his timing. His absence has costs beyond his own stat line: Ohio State receiver Jeremiah Smith has slipped behind Miami’s Darian Mensah in the Heisman race, a slide Field Level Media tied in part to Sayin’s injury.

Fahey’s team now

So the season belongs, for now, to true freshman Luke Fahey. His first career start came last week at USC: 21 of 38 for 260 yards and a touchdown in a 30-18 loss — a strange defeat in which Ohio State outgained the Trojans 464-338, held the ball for more than 39 minutes, and still managed one touchdown in four red-zone trips. The freshman was not the Buckeyes’ biggest problem in Los Angeles. He also cannot be their ceiling if they want to survive November.

The playoff math does not wait

Ohio State sits at No. 12 in the first College Football Playoff rankings, released Tuesday — and, counterintuitively, outside the projected field. No. 11 Notre Dame holds the final at-large spot, and No. 25 Boise State, the highest-ranked Group of 6 team, projects as the No. 12 seed. The Buckeyes are the first team out with four regular-season games left: Oregon in Columbus on Saturday, then Northwestern, Nebraska and the Michigan finale.

Sayin is not the only starter Ohio State is missing. Running back Ja’Kobi Jackson is out for a third straight week with the Lisfranc foot injury he suffered against Maryland, per Eleven Warriors’ report this week, and the hope inside the program is that Jackson can return for the regular-season finale against Michigan — one more reason the Buckeyes’ margin keeps shrinking while they wait on their quarterback.

Could Sayin return if Ohio State played deep into January? Day’s comments leave that door open only in the longest sense, and at least one report, from Sportsnaut, put a full recovery from the fracture at roughly four months — a timeline that would threaten even a playoff return and point instead toward spring ball and the 2027 season. The honest summary is the one Day gave: good track, long road. The Buckeyes’ season, meanwhile, will be decided in the next four Saturdays by the freshman holding the ball right now.