Losing a starting quarterback to the NFL Draft can send a program into a panic. For Louisville, the panic lasted all of two days. With two years of eligibility still on the table, Louisville is clearly lining Lincoln Kienholz up as Miller Moss’s replacement. It prompted head coach Jeff Brohm to give his analysis of his latest recruit.

“I definitely feel like Lincoln (Kienholz) brings us a dimension we definitely have not had here before,” Brohm said during Tuesday’s presser. “He is a very good athlete. He’s done a great job for a month of leading our team. When I say he’s a good athlete in the run game, it shows up. When we’re doing conditioning drills, he’s in the front, and that’s for everybody.

He wants to run the ball, too. You’ve got to make sure you get your quarterback through the season healthy, and then he can play the entire season. But that is going to be a strength — his ability to run and escape. And maybe a few more designed runs as well, where we’re making sure we’re utilizing his legs.”

Following the Missouri setback in 2023, confidence in the South Dakota native declined for an extended period. His stat line at Columbus that year, showing only 111 yards and no end zone scores, reflects this. As a result, he chose to redshirt his sophomore season when Will Howard assumed the starting role for the Buckeyes.

“I think his ability to extend the play is going to be there,” Brohm added about his new QB. “I think he has a good arm. Just improving his ability to process, make good decisions, and be able to throw like an NFL quarterback is what we’re going to work hard at. I think he’s made good strides at this point. He’s a willing learner. But he’s been in a great program. He’s learned under great coaches and a great team. He’s been around a winning team and how that works.”

It’s not like that; Ryan Day and Co. didn’t pay much attention to Kienholz. After his redshirt season was over, he was all ready to compete for the starting role against Julian Sayin. The clash went on, as Ryan Day put it, “right down to the wire.”

That’s some high-level review for the South Dakota native in just one month on campus. However, it wasn’t easy for him to earn such praise. The quarterback clash between Lincoln Kienholz and Julian Sayin in Columbus went, as Ryan Day put it, “right down to the wire.”

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Sayin and Kienholz combined 34 pass attempts and 90 college snaps during the 2025 offseason selection process. The coaching staff in Columbus faced a classic quarterback conundrum: bank on the steady hand of Sayin, whose consistency was his calling card, or gamble on the explosive, dual-threat potential of Kienholz, who offered a different dimension to the offense.

Closer to the finish line, Kienholz almost had the green light to be the next Scarlet and Grey signal-caller. He even earned numerous reviews for his leadership and work style, which was confirmed when he won the “Iron Buckeye” award. Coaches also saw him as the more athletic, true dual-threat option because of his multi-sport background. However, the last day of the camp was the main game-changer.

After going head-to-head in events such as the Student Appreciation Day and the Special Skills Football Invitational, Ryan Day said that Sayin “separated himself.”

The decision wasn’t wrong since he completed 78.9% of his passes in 2025. Lincoln Kienholz was once again moved down on the depth chart. Still, he made the most of his opportunity. He went 11 for 14 passing for 139 yards and a touchdown, and also ran for 66 yards with two touchdowns. His performance as a backup was impressive, and he didn’t throw any interceptions. This earned him a strong QBR of 95.0.

In that context, it’s easy to see how lethal he could’ve been if the staff had trusted him completely to lead the 2025 season. Now that he’s moved on, Jeff Brohm has made it clear he knows exactly how he plans to use him. The bigger question remains: how big a loss did Ryan Day and Co face?

OSU alumnus offers unbiased support for Lincoln Kienholz

Some Ohio State alums, including Bobby Carpenter, believe the Buckeyes never really gave Lincoln Kienholz a fair shake.

“I think people unfairly kind of judged Lincoln,” Carpenter said on the January 28th episode of the Bobby Carpenter Show. “But the guy was a true freshman who had no experience behind an offensive line that was shaky, to say the least. He was overwhelmed.”

It’s the terrible memories of the 2023 Cotton Bowl against Missouri. Kienholz entered the game early in the second quarter after Devin Brown left the game due to injury.

It was hardly an ideal situation for a debut. Instead of being the savior that day, Kienholz finished 6-of-17 for 86 yards as Ohio State managed just 203 total yards in a 14–3 loss. The secondary tried to manage as long as it could. But eventually fell flat out of exhaustion in the fourth quarter. That game left a lasting, unfair impression of Kienholz among many fans. But is that who he really is now?

He was a true freshman, thrown into a pit of fire with almost no time to prepare. To make things more difficult, Ohio State had revamped its offensive line just before the start, and the unit completely underperformed. Protection issues were pervasive, assignments were missed, and Kienholz rarely had clean looks.