Ohio State heads to USC without Julian Sayin, and Ryan Day hasn't named a starter

No. 2 Ohio State comes out of its bye week Saturday night at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum without the quarterback who got it to 6-1. The Dayton Daily News reported that Julian Sayin will miss the USC game after hurting his throwing arm in the Buckeyes' 19-15 win at Indiana on Oct. 17. As of that report, head coach Ryan Day had not said who will start in his place.

Kickoff is 7:30 p.m. Eastern on NBC. Whoever starts will make his first road start of the season in prime time, against a team that is 6-2. A week off gave Ohio State's staff time to prepare a backup, but Day has not said who it will be. That leaves USC's defensive staff without a clear quarterback to game-plan for.

The Ohio State offense had been rolling with Sayin. The Buckeyes are averaging about 39 points a game, with 45 against Maryland, 42 against Illinois and 59 against Kent State. The Indiana win was their lowest-scoring game of the season. Their only loss was a one-point game at Texas, 24-23.

What it means against USC

The Buckeyes can lean on their defense, the steadiest part of this team. Ohio State has allowed 94 points in seven games, about 13.4 per game. No opponent has scored more than 24. In its last four games, against Illinois, Iowa, Maryland and Indiana, the defense gave up no more than 19 points in any of them. A less experienced quarterback does not need to win a shootout if the defense keeps that up.

USC comes in after two quite different results. The Trojans won 31-23 at Penn State, then scored only 7 points in a 24-7 loss at Wisconsin last week. They have scored about 33 points a game but allowed 25. Their other loss was 41-27 at home to Oregon, which makes this the second ranked opponent to visit the Coliseum this season.

On this site's Ohio State at USC board, the Buckeyes remain clear favorites despite the quarterback news. Novig, one of 12 venues tracked, has Ohio State at -223 on the moneyline and USC at +213. FanDuel has the best Ohio State moneyline at -220, so the venues are close on who wins. They are less in agreement on the spread. Novig has Ohio State favored by 6.5 at -104, while BetRivers lists the Buckeyes at -5.5 for -118. Sportsbook hold on the spread ranges from 3.4% to 7.0%. A spread of roughly a touchdown is small next to Ohio State's average scoring margin of about 26 points a game, which suggests the market expects the Sayin injury to make a difference.

The total is 51.5 on Novig, with the over at +106 and the under at -108. theScore Bet is a point lower at 50.5. Ohio State's games have averaged about 53 combined points, but the Buckeyes have held all but one opponent under 20. How far the total lands from 51.5 will depend largely on how the new quarterback handles his first start on the road.