Kyle McCord Makes Clear Case to Remain Ohio State’s Starting Quarterback with Performance Against Youngstown State

After Ohio State’s second game of the 2023 season, it now appears clear who the Buckeyes’ top quarterback is.

Kyle McCord left the door open for Devin Brown to continue competing for the starting quarterback job with a shaky season opener in which he had zero touchdown passes and one interception while completing 20 of 33 passes for 239 yards against Indiana. But McCord started to close that door, while Brown didn’t do much to push it back open on Saturday against Youngstown State.

McCord looked much sharper in his second start of the season, throwing for 258 yards and three touchdowns on just 20 passing attempts, completing 14 of them. Brown was more inconsistent with his accuracy and never got into a great rhythm, completing only seven of 13 passing attempts for 101 yards with zero touchdowns.

In the game's immediate aftermath, Ryan Day wasn’t ready to commit to McCord as a firm starting quarterback going forward, saying he wanted to evaluate the film before making any decisions. But Day said he was impressed with McCord’s improvement from Week 1 to Week 2.

“I thought Kyle had poise coming into his second game. You could feel a little bit of that part of it,” Day said. “I thought Devin early on was a little anxious. But then I think for him, once he gets hit and gets a little tired, he calms down a little bit. You can see the talent there. So we'll look at the film and see, but I thought Kyle came out pretty efficiently overall. And I thought Devin made some plays as well.

“He looked more comfortable for sure in this game,” Day said of McCord.

McCord said he felt calmer against Youngstown State after getting his first start of the year under his belt.

“Any time you can get that start under your belt, and especially get a win against a good Big Ten team like Indiana, it’s good for sure. And then you use that confidence and that experience you got from that first week and carry it on to the second week,” McCord said. “Now the goal is to use what I learned this week and carry it onto next week and keep that train rolling.

“First start of a new year, a season opener on the road, Big Ten team – there's a lot that goes into it. And I wouldn't necessarily call them distractions, but there's just a lot of things that go into that game, and once you get that game over with, got the win and then got into the flow of a normal week with a practice schedule and then know our routine and just kind of eased into it a little bit more so that I would say the first week. So I think definitely the emotions were just more calm more than anything, I feel like, so I think that definitely helps in the long run.”

While it came as somewhat of a surprise that Day held off on naming a firm starting quarterback after the first game, considering McCord’s underwhelming performance in Bloomington and Brown only having the opportunity to play six snaps, it would come as more of a surprise if Day doesn’t name McCord as the full-fledged starter going into next week’s game against Western Kentucky. With a clear separation between the two quarterbacks’ performance on Saturday and the first big test of the year against Notre Dame just two weeks away, there should be more urgency for Ohio State to bring the quarterback competition to an end and allow McCord to get into a rhythm as the Buckeyes’ starter next week against Western Kentucky.

“I think that's worth considering, yeah,” Day said when asked if he felt it was time to start giving all the first-team reps to one quarterback. “But I think that's something that we’ve gotta talk about as a staff.”

Of course, McCord’s week-to-week improvement features the caveat that it came against an FCS opponent, which an Ohio State quarterback should always be able to put up big numbers against. And given that Saturday was Brown’s first opportunity as a Buckeye to see extended playing time, it was also fair to expect that Brown’s inexperience would show – which perhaps wouldn’t be the case as much if he saw extended playing time again next week.

“That’s why we tried to get Devin more snaps, to get kind of those first things hashed out, things maybe you saw (from) Kyle in the first game, you saw maybe a little bit with Devin in this game,” Day said.

The reality, however, is that Ohio State is running out of time to experiment before it enters a game that it will need to perform at its best to win. And Saturday’s game served as evidence that McCord is the quarterback who gives Ohio State the best chance to win right now.

Whether Day decides to name a clear-cut starter this upcoming week or allow them to continue competing, both quarterbacks said they plan to keep their focus on just trying to play their best whenever their number is called.

“It’s not up to me. That’s a question for Coach Day,” McCord said when asked if he thought he had done enough to wrap up the starting job. “The only thing I'm worried about is whenever I'm on the field, just making the most out of my opportunities. And if that's every single drive, then that's great. If it's every other drive, it’s great. If it's one drive, it's great. Whatever opportunities I get, I'm gonna try and make the most out of them.”

“I have no idea what their plan is, but the plan for me is if my number’s called to go out and make a play,” Brown said. “That's all I can do.”

All seven of Marvin Harrison Jr.’s receptions for 160 yards and two touchdowns against Youngstown State came on passes from McCord, while three of Emeka Egbuka’s five catches, including his 28-yard touchdown, also came from McCord, but both of them expressed confidence in both quarterbacks after Saturday’s game.

“I believe that the sky's the limit for both of them,” Egbuka said. “I mean, Devin and Kyle, they were kind of going at it from spring into fall camp, and I saw the levels of both of their games rise exponentially, just because they were forced to that next level by the other guy. Both of them are gonna come along, and I feel like they are coming along nicely. A lot of people were mad at C.J. (Stroud) after (his first game against) Minnesota, kind of the same thing last week (with Kyle), but we're gonna get into a rhythm and you guys are gonna see just how special they are.”