Will the Ohio State-Indiana winner determine the Julian Sayin-Fernando Mendoza Heisman race? A look at history

It's a two-man race plus a wild card, as Ryan Day says Sayin looks like a different person

The Big Ten Championship Game should determine the Heisman Trophy outcome for Ohio State quarterback Julian Sayin. (Photo by Doug Lesmerises)

COLUMBUS — Ryan Day compared it to sending a sailor out to sea. Julian Sayin hasn’t grown a beard (see face above), but the journey of Ohio State’s first-year starting quarterback from the Texas opener until now, especially through those big waves in Ann Arbor last weekend, has Day seeing a new man.

“Maybe he doesn’t look different to you, but the guy who played against Texas and the guy who came off that field on Saturday looked like two different people to me,” Day said this week.

He said Sayin talks different, walks different, moves different … again, everything but facial hair different.

“He’s more experienced, he’s more mature, there’s a different look in his eye,” Day said.

I told Sayin that his coach compared him to a sailor — Sayin the sailor who survived the Michigan game.

“It’s battling adversity,” Sayin said. “We knew adversity was going to come and it wound up coming on the second play, and our motto on offense is just keep swinging.”

Day remained impressed by Sayin’s response, command and lack of panic after throwing an interception against the Wolverines on that second play. The next boat heads to Indy for a No. 1 vs. No. 2 Big Ten Championship Game showdown between the Buckeyes and Indiana Hooisers. And the haul from that journey could include both the Big Ten Championship and the Heisman Trophy.

Sayin said he’s not focused on the individual award, of course. He said he’s never met Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza, but he called him a great player, a smart player and a great decision maker. Day said the same of Mendoza — very accurate, makes plays with his feet, very intelligent, sees the field, makes good decisions.

On one betting site, Mendoza is listed as the Heisman favorite, with Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia right behind him, and Sayin right behind Pavia. Then there’s a large gap to the rest of the field.

We’ll get to a Sayin-Mendoza stats comparison in a moment, but as for Pavia, his passing numbers are similar to those two (though Sayin’s completion percentage is considerably higher than both), but Pavia is a much greater run threat, averaging 69 rushing yards per game.

Vanderbilt is a wonderful story at 10-2 and in the playoff mix, but the Commodores don’t have a win over a team currently in the Top 25, and they aren’t playing this weekend.

“I think the award should go to the best college football in the country,” Day said, “not necessarily the person who has the most stats. And that takes a skillful eye to be able to identify that.”

Often in the Heisman race, playing on conference championship weekend matters. That’s what I looked at over the previous 11 years, since the playoff started in 2014. Here’s what Heisman winners did on conference championship weekend: