Kyle McCord will begin the 2023 season as Ohio State’s starting quarterback.
After Ohio State’s quarterback competition between McCord and Devin Brown continued into the final week of preseason camp, Ryan Day announced Tuesday that McCord will be the starter for Saturday’s season opener at Indiana, though Brown will also play against the Hoosiers.
Day said McCord earned the opportunity to start the season opener based on his consistency in practice over the past two weeks. That said, Day said he expects Brown to also play “meaningful snaps” in Bloomington, though an exact plan for how much both will play has not been determined.
Ryan Day said Devin Brown has earned the right to play against Indiana. He selected Kyle McCord as the starter because of his consistency in the past two weeks.
— Chase Brown (@chaseabrown__) August 29, 2023
I'm not sure how it's gonna shake out. What we are doing is fair based off of what weve seen this preseason.
Ryan Day said Kyle McCord made the routine plays routinely and took care of the football in recent practices. Thats why he is starting, Day said.
— Chase Brown (@chaseabrown__) August 29, 2023
Still, Day said he and Ohio States coaches have confidence in both McCord and Devin Brown.
McCord, a third-year quarterback from Mount Laurel, New Jersey, has long been viewed as a favorite to start for the Buckeyes this season. McCord was C.J. Stroud’s top backup for the past two seasons, giving him an edge in experience over Brown, a redshirt freshman who did not throw any in-game passes as a true freshman in 2022.
But the competition between McCord and Brown has been a real battle throughout the offseason, and it’s not over yet. While McCord will take the first snaps in Bloomington, he has only been named the starter for the first game, and giving Brown playing time will give him the opportunity to continue competing for the job. Day said Tuesday that the gap between them is not yet “sizable,” though McCord has outperformed Brown enough in recent practices to earn the opportunity to begin the year as the starter.
“You would like to have somebody who's the quarterback to play the whole game. But for me to say, ‘Hey, this guy should just play the whole game and the other one shouldn't,’ that's not the right thing to do right now, because they both deserve to play at this point,” Day said last week.
McCord has had his sights set on succeeding Stroud as Ohio State’s starting quarterback since he beat out Jack Miller for Ohio State’s backup quarterback job in 2021. The third-highest-rated quarterback recruit to ever sign with the Buckeyes (behind only Quinn Ewers and Terrelle Pryor), McCord has been viewed as the probable heir apparent to Stroud since Ewers transferred to Texas, and he’ll now have a chance to fulfill that prophecy.
Ranked as the No. 28 overall prospect in the 2021 class, McCord has completed 41 of 58 passing attempts for 606 yards with three touchdowns and two interceptions in limited action over the past two seasons. In his lone start to date of his Ohio State career, McCord completed 13 of 18 passes for 319 yards and two touchdowns against Akron in 2021, earning Big Ten Freshman of the Week honors for his efforts.
A pocket passer with a big arm, McCord has spent the past two years building chemistry with Ohio State’s veteran receivers both in practice and in throwing sessions outside of practice. His connection with Ohio State’s No. 1 receiver dates back much further, as McCord played with Marvin Harrison Jr. at St. Joseph’s Prep High School in Philadelphia, where he led the Hawks to three straight state championships and set city records by throwing for 6,687 yards and 88 touchdowns over three years.
Now, McCord will look to follow in the footsteps of Stroud, Fields and Haskins, who were all Heisman Trophy finalists in their first year leading Ohio State’s offense, by achieving immediate success as a first-year starter. But McCord will need to start just by performing well against Indiana and in Ohio State’s subsequent games to prove he is the right man for the job.
