Tavien St. Clair was Bryce Underwood and Arch Manning. Now he's stepping up to QB2

The young Buckeye quarterback details his time on the scout team last year.

Ohio State quarterback Tavien St. Clair attempted two passes as a true freshman in 2025. (Photo courtesy of OSU athletics)

COLUMBUS — Tavien St. Clair is thankful to Ohio State’s coaching staff for not making him wear Michigan’s winged helmet.

“I don’t know if I would’ve liked that,” St. Clair told BAD during an interview back in December ahead of the Buckeyes’ loss to Miami in the Cotton Bowl. “The other guys had to, but I was glad they didn’t do that for me. I wouldn’t have been a big fan of that.”

St. Clair wasn’t being defiant. He’s just a kid from central Ohio who would rather practice without a helmet than wear one fashioned with blue and yellow tape to resemble the Wolverines’ lid, a common practice for Ohio State’s scout team players during Michigan week. The former five-star prospect and the highest-ranked Ohio quarterback in the history of the 247Sports composite ratings, spent his freshman season leading the Buckeyes’ scout team offense. That meant playing the role of Michigan quarterback Bryce Underwood, the player ranked two spots ahead of St. Clair in the Class of 2025 quarterback rankings, in the days before the team’s trip to Ann Arbor.

Of all the roles St. Clair had to play on the scout team, he said Underwood was his favorite.

“Mostly because of the intensity at practice,” he said. “It was almost like they were viewing me as Bryce Underwood that week, so the competitiveness was at an all-time high. Guys were shoulder-checking me and stuff like that after the play. It was fun. It was scrappy.”

It was important.