"He Toughed It Out": Ryan Day Says Kyle McCord Will Be "Fine" After Sustaining a Lower-Extremity Injury Late in Ohio State's Win Over Wisconsin

After a college football game, it's standard for a quarterback to appear before the media and answer questions about his team's performance. Of course, there are exceptions to that standard – one being the quarterback dealing with bumps and bruises from the contest.

That was the case for Ohio State quarterback Kyle McCord following the Wisconsin game on Saturday.

After the Buckeyes' 24-10 win over the Badgers, McCord, who completed 17 of 26 passes for 226 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions, was seen leaving Camp Randall Stadium with a limp and ice wrapped around his ankle. McCord appeared to suffer the injury when a defender landed on his leg at the end of a third-down conversion run in the third quarter.

It was a battle out there, Kyle McCord headed to the bus with a pretty severe limp on a night where he completed 17 of 26 for 226 yards, 2 TDs/2 INTs @nbc4i pic.twitter.com/kckdqYSq5B
— Joe Nugent (@joenuge) October 29, 2023

Despite McCord's obvious pain, Ohio State head coach Ryan Day said in his postgame press conference that the third-year Buckeye will be "fine" moving forward. Day also shared his assessment of McCord's performance, which he believes involved noticeable toughness and leadership.

"He toughed it out at the end and still hung in there," Day said. "When you have a couple of tough plays, the easy thing to do and what most people do is get gunshy. He didn't do that. He kept swinging. He kept pushing. You could hear him on the sideline before that drive where TreVeyon (Henderson) ran it to make it a two-score game. He was in that huddle getting after the guys. He showed good leadership there."

When asked about McCord's two interceptions vs. Wisconsin, which came after turnover-free football since he threw a pick in Ohio State's season opener vs. Indiana, Day broke down how each interception occurred and how McCord can learn from them.

"I usually don't get into the plays right after the game, but I have a pretty good feel what happened on both of them," Day said. "I think he would tell you on the first one that it was a bad decision. ... The ball should have been thrown away. It was a bad decision. On the second one, the corner came off on Cover 3. He was reading the flat defender, and that corner came off, took a chance and made a nice play. I don't blame (Kyle) for that play. I don't. There will be times when you are pushing it down the field, and things like that will happen. I told him, 'Hey, I get it. The corner came off. Let's play the next play.' Those plays were behind us. ... Good to see him come in there and keep playing hard."

Ohio State wide receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. shared a similar sentiment to Day. In an interview with NBC after the win, Harrison told sideline reporter Kathryn Tappen that McCord showed toughness to battle back from the two interceptions and finish the game on a positive note.

"He's resilient. That's what I've seen from him every day since the high school days," Harrison said. "He never gets too down on himself. He has some great guys around him that will pick him up. He's gonna continue to fight."