Carlsbad’s Julian Sayin finished fourth in the 2025 Heisman Trophy voting, announced Saturday night at Lincoln Center in New York City, with his former high school coach, Thadd MacNeal, in attendance.
As a redshirt freshman and first-year starter at Ohio State University, Sayin was the only underclassman among the finalists and the lone player who remains eligible to compete in college football beyond this season, positioning him as an early contender for future Heisman races.
Notre Dame running back Jeremiyah Love placed third, while Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia finished second. Sayin received eight first-place votes, compared with 643 for Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza, who won the award after leading the Hoosiers to an undefeated season and defeating Ohio State in the Big Ten Championship Game.
Ohio State head coach Ryan Day, speaking during the ABC broadcast in New York, said being named a finalist was an achievement in itself.
“Julian’s just getting started,” Day said. “[He’s] a first-year starter, in a time where the guys who get invited to New York are multiple-year players, guys who have played a lot of football. This is Julian’s first year playing [college] football, and to see the way he’s taken this first year, with everything that comes with being the quarterback at Ohio State, and handling it with humility – he’s got a lot of football ahead of him, not just this year, but down the road. And I’m really proud of him.”
Sayin has pointed to watching NFL quarterback and former Oregon Duck, Marcus Mariota, win the Heisman Trophy in 2014 as a seminal moment in his life.
“As a kid growing up, I would tell people that I wanted to be in New York for the Heisman ceremony,” Sayin said. “I watched my idols win this award on TV, so this is really a testament to our coaching staff, our players and the community around me at Ohio State for putting me in this position.”
This season, Sayin guided Ohio State to a 12-1 record and a No. 2 seed in the College Football Playoff, becoming the seventh Buckeye to earn Heisman finalist status since 2018 and the program’s 10th finalist since 1982. He led the nation in completion percentage (78.4) and passer efficiency (182.05), surpassing the NCAA single-season completion record set by Oregon’s Bo Nix in 2023.
Sayin also tied for the national lead with five games of at least 300 passing yards and three touchdown passes, matched the nation’s high with 11 touchdown throws of 30 yards or more, and finished tied for second with 30 touchdown passes while ranking among the national leaders in yards per attempt and total passing yards.
A Solana Beach native, Sayin led Carlsbad High to a 30-3 record as a three-year starter after backing up his older brother, Aidan — now Penn’s starting quarterback — as a freshman. He was a three-time Avocado League Offensive MVP, the 2023 Gatorade California Player of the Year, and Elite 11 Finals MVP, finishing his high school career with 7,970 passing yards and 86 touchdowns as a five-star recruit.
“Coach Mac’s entire mindset toward football is the biggest thing I’ve carried: showing up, grinding, being the first one out, the last one to leave. That’s truly the mentality of someone who’s going to go far. That’s something both Julian and I took with us,” Lancers alum and current Michigan tight end Zack Marshall told The Coast News.
“Julian was cool as a fricking cucumber, and competitive as all get-up,” Lancers secondary coach Lance Thomas added. “Man, he just never cracked. He was always calm, cool and collected, never too high, never too low, just kind of in the middle.”
Previous Heisman Trophy winners from the San Diego area include Gary Beban (UCLA, 1967), Marcus Allen (USC, 1981), Rashaan Salaam (Colorado, 1994), and Reggie Bush (USC, 2005).
This season, Sayin was named the Big Ten’s Thompson-Randle El Freshman of the Year and is also a finalist for four national awards: the Walter Camp Award, the Maxwell Award, the Manning Award, and the Davey O’Brien Award.
Ohio State will face the winner of the Texas A&M-Miami College Football Playoff matchup on Dec. 31.
