COLUMBUS — The first person on Ohio State’s sideline to realize what was happening was freshman receiver Chris Henry Jr. Once Julian Sayin slipped the second would-be Illinois tackler in the backfield and had green turf in front of him, Henry started jumping up and down on the sideline and pumping his fist.
Sayin still had 11 yards to run to get the first down on third-and-7.
When Sayin stepped out of bounds just past the marker, he ran into strength coach Anthony Schlegel, who hugged him and smacked him on the back of the helmet. Second-year linebacker TJ Alford was right there and smacked Sayin on the butt. Payton Pierce came running down the sideline to give Sayin a helmet pat. Brandon Inniss did the same when he got to the sideline.
Ryan Day stood there signaling first down, his quarterback picking up the necessary yards with his legs on a second-quarter scramble. How about that?
“We challenged Julian this past week, and I thought he responded,” Day said. “You could see the reaction from the sideline. That’s the X-factor. He has the quickness to do that. I thought he competed well today.”