Kyle McCord Earns Starting Nod For Buckeyes At Quarterback

COLUMBUS — Kyle McCord will be getting the starting nod at quarterback in Ohio State’s season opener at Indiana this Saturday. Head coach Ryan Day made the announcement on Monday, which comes just five days before the Buckeyes kick off in Bloomington.

McCord, a junior, has been battling with redshirt freshman Devin Brown through spring and fall camp for the starting job. The competition may not be completely over, however, as Brown is still expected to see the field against the Hoosiers.

“I think that Kyle has done a great job over the last two weeks of of showing consistency,” Day said. “He’s played very well in practice. But Devin also throughout the body of the preseason has shown that he deserves to play, so expect for him to play. We have confidence in both of them.”

As to how and when Brown will see the field, that will be decided later in the week based on how practices go. For both guys, however, Day wants them to know that they’ll both be given an opportunity to get their footing.

“I told both of those guys this isn’t going to be a situation where they need to be worried about getting quote unquote benched in the game,” Day said. “That’s not the case. They have to go play through some of that stuff.”

Saturday will be the second start of McCord’s career. He started against Akron as a true freshman in 2021 when starting quarterback CJ Stroud was given a week off to rest a sore shoulder. McCord completed 13-of-18 passes for 319 yards with two touchdowns and one interception against the Zips. He had a season-long 85-yard completion to receiver Emeka Egbuka in that game as well.

Last year as CJ Stroud’s backup quarterback once again, McCord completed 16-of-20 passes for 190 yards and a touchdown. That number included a 72-yard touchdown pass to receiver Jayden Ballard.

In his Buckeye career, McCord has completed 41-of-58 passes (70.7%) for 606 yards with three touchdowns and two interceptions.

A former five-star recruit out of St. Joseph’s Prep in Philadelphia, McCord has played in 12 games at Ohio State. He was a four-star prospect and ranked the No. 8 quarterback in the 2021 class. The No. 1 quarterback in that class was former teammate Quinn Ewers.

McCord is the first third-year player to be named a first-time starting quarterback at Ohio State since Dwayne Haskins in 2018.

McCord is now the fourth quarterback to become a first-time starter under Ryan Day at Ohio State. The other three — Haskins in 2018, Justin Fields in 2019, and CJ Stroud in 2021 — were all Heisman finalists those same years.

Those three quarterbacks averaged 4,180 yards passing with 45 touchdowns and six interceptions in their inaugural seasons as starters.

Buckeye Huddle will have much, much more on this news coming soon.

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