USC’s toughest task of the season might’ve just gotten a little easier.
With Ohio State prepared to play its first game of the season without Julian Sayin lined up behind center, the team is pivoting to a freshman.
According to Matt Zeintz of CBS, the Buckeyes are planning to start Luke Fahey at quarterback.
On Oct. 20, Ryan Day announced that Sayin would be out indefinitely due to a shoulder injury on his throwing arm.
ESPN’s Jake Trotter reported that Day said Fahey would compete with sophomore Tavien St. Clair for the starting position.
“We’re going to play the guy that gives us the best chance to win,” Day told Trotter on Oct. 20. “Going into the last few games, Luke’s been ahead of Tavien in terms of what we’ve seen, but now that we have a bye week, these guys are both going to get a lot of reps, and we’re going to start to put together a plan on how we’re going to move forward. We’re going to play the guy that gives us the best chance to win.”
Sayin was injured when the Buckeyes snapped Indiana’s 22-game win streak on Oct. 17.
Sayin was sacked by an Indiana defender, which resulted in him fumbling the ball and immediately heading back to the Buckeyes’ locker room. He returned to the field shortly after but was seen wearing a sling around his arm.
According to 247Sports, Fahey was a three-star recruit who was ranked as the 38th quarterback out of California in the Class of 2026 from Mission Viejo High School.
Last year, Fahey threw for 1,638 yards with 17 touchdowns and zero interceptions.
His first career start will be back in his home of Southern California, in front of a sold-out crowd at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
USC finds itself entering Saturday’s game as an unranked team for the first time this season, following a disappointing loss to Wisconsin last week.
The Trojans’ offense, which has been good this season, ranking seventh in the Big Ten averaging 32.8 points per game, has been followed by a defense that hasn’t been good, giving up an average of 25 points per game, putting them 13th in the Big Ten.
Having an incapable defense to support an electric offense has been the tale of head coach Lincoln Riley since he took over the program in 2021.
USC is 6-2 this season and has also lost to an Oregon team that is 4-3 and no longer ranked.
Riley’s best win this season came on Oct. 10, when the Trojans traveled to Happy Valley to face an unranked Penn State team during a Whiteout and beat them 31-23.
As Riley’s defense is set to face off against a freshman quarterback, the coach needs them to pull off a massive upset to keep him off the hot seat.
