Kyle McCord still holds Ohio State and its fans in high regard despite the unceremonious end of his tenure with the Buckeyes.
During an interview on the “Rise and Schein” podcast with SiriusXM’s Adam Schein, McCord said he has “nothing but love for the Buckeyes” even though he decided to transfer from Ohio State to Syracuse following last year’s regular season when Ryan Day declined to guarantee that he would remain the Buckeyes’ starting quarterback for 2024.
McCord says he has kept in touch with many of his former Ohio State teammates and some of his former Buckeye coaches and that he continues to receive support from Ohio State fans.
“I appreciate all of them,” McCord said when asked what his message to Ohio State fans would be. “I still root for Ohio State. I got a lot of friends who are still on the team. I still talk to a few of the coaches. I still root for them and I’m cheering those guys on. I appreciate the fans because I met a lot of great people in the community who still have been reaching out and supporting me so that’s been awesome. On my end, there’s nothing but love for the Buckeyes.”
McCord acknowledged that he likely wouldn’t have left Ohio State if the Buckeyes had beaten Michigan and said he felt like he left OSU with “unfinished business” because of that loss in The Game. But he says he is grateful for what he learned over the course of his three years at Ohio State.
“I’m extremely thankful for how it went. In the moment, it’s not necessarily how you envision the season ending, losing against Michigan,” McCord said. “But there was a lot of really good things that I learned about myself throughout the season, just growing as a player and a person, and so to go through all that, I feel like it’s prepared me for everything that’s to come still in my career.”
"Right when I got in the portal that morning I posted it, and a few hours later, Coach Fran's sitting in my living room." #Syracuse QB Kyle McCord tells @AdamSchein about the end of his time at Ohio State & why he's thankful for how it worked out.
— Mad Dog Sports Radio (@MadDogRadio) September 18, 2024
https://t.co/Uali8biKvU pic.twitter.com/ZS7dr87sac
McCord is off to an excellent start at his new school, leading Syracuse to a 2-0 start by completing 59 of 85 passing attempts (69.4%) for 735 yards and eight touchdowns with one interception in his first two games. Will Howard, who Ohio State brought in via transfer from Kansas State to replace McCord, is having his own success with the Buckeyes, leading Ohio State to a 2-0 start by completing 35 of 54 passing attempts (64.8%) for 520 yards and four touchdowns with no interceptions.
Asked about McCord last week, Ryan Day said he’s still rooting for McCord’s success even though he decided to leave the Buckeyes.
“He's off to a great start,” Day said. “It looks like the first couple games he's gotten a good rhythm and got a great win (two weeks ago against Georgia Tech), so happy to see him doing well so far this season.
“When you come to Ohio State you're going to get developed at a high level at every position, but at quarterback, I take a lot of pride in that and the fact that we develop guys at a high level and that even if you were to leave – we don't want you to leave – but even if you were to leave, it's still time well-spent and invested. And so you’re happy when guys go on and do well, even though you want to retain as many guys as you can – that's our whole culture – but that’s just the way of the world. So happy to see Kyle do well, he won some great games here and poured a lot of effort into the program.”
