In what could be the start of the back-to-back championship journey for Ohio State in the College Football Playoff, one Buckeyes player left the Heisman Trophy ceremony feeling largely ignored.
Quarterback Julian Sayin, who some considered neck-and-neck with Indiana’s Fernando Mendoza the majority of the year, finished fourth in the voting behind Notre Dame running back Jeremiyah Smith, Vanderbilt QB Diego Pavia, and the Hoosiers quarterback, who took home the top prize.
The Buckeyes conductor only received eight first-place votes compared to Mendoza’s leading 643.
It was a weekend of being overlooked for Sayin and the Buckeyes. During the press day for the Heisman finalists, Sayin sat alone with only one or two media members asking him questions, while his contemporaries from Indiana and Notre Dame were mobbed with reporters right next to him.
Sayin wasn’t the only Buckeyes player to feel snubbed on the biggest week for individual awards in the college football season.
Teammate and wide receiver dynamo Jeremiah Smith likely also felt slighted. After winning the Big 10 award for best receiver, he lost the nation’s top receiver award, the Biletnikoff, to…another Big 10 wideout in USC’s Makai Lemon.
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On top of that, projected 2026 first-rounder Caleb Downs came up short in the Butkus Award to Texas Tech’s Jacob Rodriguez, given to the best linebacker in the country.
All in all, it was a disappointing weekend for the Buckeyes, which went through the entire campaign without dropping a game until losing narrowly to Mendoza and Indiana in the Big 10 Championship Game, in terms of individual awards.
Ohio State will now wait to play in the College Football Playoffs quarterfinals, awaiting the winner of the Miami Hurricanes and Texas A&M Aggies in the Cotton Bowl.
