Tom Krasovic: Carlsbad’s Julian Sayin is California cool in win over Texas

Move the sticks, don’t turn the ball over.

So read the pithy text message Carlsbad High School football coach Thadd MacNeal received Friday from Julian Sayin.

“That’s our quarterback philosophy at Carlsbad,” MacNeal said.

The low-frills approach works at Ohio State, too, as Sayin proved Saturday in a clean and poised showing by the 20-year-old sophomore in his first collegiate start.

Throwing a 40-yard touchdown pass and committing no turnovers, Sayin assisted third-ranked Ohio State’s 14-7 victory over top-ranked Texas in Columbus.

“He really didn’t make any big mistakes,” said MacNeal, who wore a scarlet Sayin jersey.

It’s good for Carlsbad’s mayor that Sayin will be playing football instead of running for local office.

“Sayin, Sayin, Sayin!” chanted Carlsbad fans who, along with MacNeal and his staff, packed a local pizza joint by the 9:10 a.m. kickoff Saturday.

Children proudly displayed playing cards of Sayin, who has swapped the purple-jersey No. 9 he wore with Carlsbad for No. 10 in Buckeyes scarlet.

“People turned out here because he’s such a great dude,” said Paul Publico, Carlsbad’s defensive coordinator.

If Sayin had flubbed a few things Saturday, it would’ve made sense, despite his ballyhooed five-star status as a recruit when he signed with Alabama before transferring after coach Nick Saban retired.

After all, he was starting his first football game since November 2023 – a playoff shoot-out that Granite Hills won by one point in overtime. The four times he played last year, for Ohio State’s national championship-winning team, the games were in hand.

Where about 7,000 fans attended his games at Carlsbad, the number was 107,524 Saturday in Ohio’s horseshoe-shaped stadium.

And, leading up to and during the national telecast, the media hype was thicker than Carlsbad’s soupiest coastal fog.

Yet if Sayin erred against a much-touted Texas D, it wasn’t obvious throughout a 64-play performance that saw the 6-foot-1, 210-pounder complete 13 of 20 passes for 126 yards.

He never muffed a snap or fumbled. His management of the huddle and the line of scrimmage contributed to Ohio State having no penalties until the fourth quarter, when the offensive line was flagged twice. With quick lateral bursts, he survived a few rapid pressures from pass rushers.

“He didn’t step in the mud all day,” said Publico.

Sayin’s best play was a movement throw under pressure from his end zone that moved the sticks. His TD toss, a seam shot to Carnell Tate, who made a difficult grab through contact, was good enough. Softening his stats, three of his first-half passes were dropped, two by star receiver Jeremiah Smith.

For the Carlsbad insiders who’ve been around Sayin for many years, the sturdy performance was as surprising as Saturday’s sunny weather in San Diego.

“He had one interception in his whole senior year,” said Publico, who suggested Sayin is more mature than many adults.

Friday, MacNeal dismissed any notion that Sayin would be too excited Saturday.

“He’s very, very locked in,” said the coach, who quarterbacked Carlsbad in the late 1980s. “He lives and breathes football. He wants to play well for his teammates and for his coaches. He’s a very, very humble kid.

“He won’t care how they win, just so they win. He just wants to do his job and make sure he puts his team in position to win.”

Carlsbad’s coaches, a pretty modest bunch themselves, said they deserved no credit for Sayin’s success. Actually, said Publico, Sayin fueled their growth as coaches, partly enabling them to attend practices at powerhouses such as Oregon, Alabama, Georgia and Texas over the past four springs.

“Honestly,” the coach said, “it was because Julian was so good.”

Popular also with high school coaches, Sayin could’ve left Carlsbad to play for big-time prep programs. Publico mentioned schools in Orange County, Los Angeles County and Florida as possible destinations.

Sayin instead chose to stick with his friends and his city, spending all four years at Carlsbad, where, as a freshman, he backed up his brother, Aiden, who plays for Penn. And even now, if asked to counsel a current Lancers player, Sayin does it.

“Julian pays it forward,” said Publico, who praised the teen’s parents, Karen Brandenburg and Dan Sayin.

Against Texas, Sayin benefited from a sound Ohio State defense, which allowed no points before the fourth quarter, as well as a noisy crowd, which contributed to false starts and perhaps blocking errors within a Texas offense directed by Arch Manning, who was making his own much-anticipated first collegiate start.

Manning, a nephew of Super Bowl-winning former quarterbacks Peyton and Eli Manning, showed glimpses of the accuracy, touch and elusiveness that have led some football experts to project him as a No. 1 draft pick.

Leading to an interception, though, he threw too late without enough zip.

MacNeal, having attended a few Texas QB meetings with Manning and Longhorns coaches in March, described Manning as “very humble, super friendly, really hard working – very similar to Julian.”

Post-victory Saturday, when he was interviewed on the field by Fox Sports, Sayin gave generic replies, praising his teammates.

He knows big challenges loom.

Penn State quarterback Drew Allar, to name one, returned to school this year with the intent of leading his team past Ohio State and to the national title. NFL scouts project Allar as a potential No. 1 overall draftee.

Signed for a reported $14 million in endorsement money, Michigan quarterback Bryce Underwood will be expected to lead the Wolverines to a fifth straight win over Ohio State in November.

Manning and Texas could be on the horizon, too — and Allar, Underwood and Manning are all bigger and more mobile than Sayin.

But in college football’s hottest early-season matchup, the Carlsbad dude was California cool. He’s the first QB to win his first career start against a No. 1 opponent since Michigan’s Jim Harbaugh did it against Miami 41 years ago.