Skull Session: Kyle McCord Commits to Syracuse, Ohio State Men's Basketball is Back in the Win Column and Aaliyah Elliott Signs With the Buckeyes’ Track and Field Team

By Chase Brown on December 18, 2023 at 5:00 am
Kyle McCord
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Welcome to the Skull Session.

Ohio State football players → Ohio State graduates.

Let’s have a good Monday, shall we?

 ORANGE CRUSH. On Sunday, former Ohio State quarterback Kyle McCord announced he would transfer to Syracuse, where he will become QB1 for the Orange in Fran Brown’s debut season as head coach in 2024.

“I have one more chance to go out and really commit myself, and going through the process, I was looking at schools where I’d have a chance of winning right away,” McCord told ESPN’s Pete Thamel about his decision. “With the pieces going there, I’ll definitely have that option.”

When Thamel asked about McCord’s time at Ohio State, the Buckeyes’ 2023 starter offered a short summary.

“I think the biggest thing is starting a full season there,” he said. “I learned a lot and played a lot of football and played in a lot of big games. That experience is valuable experience. Being able to take that to Syracuse is going to be a huge tool for me. Having that in my pocket and knowing what I need to work on now. That’s huge.”

A simple and sweet response.

Yet, as The Columbus Dispatch’s Bill Rabinowitz reported over the weekend, simple and sweet could not be used to describe McCord’s departure from Ohio State. No, McCord’s decision to enter the transfer portal was... complicated.

The decision to leave was McCord’s. Ohio State wanted him to return for his senior season, sources told The Dispatch. He would have been the front-runner to start again in 2024. But McCord wanted Day’s assurance that he would be the starter. Day declined to commit to that.

Part of that was because the request came just days after a painful loss to Michigan. Everyone was still processing that defeat, and Day didn’t want to make a hurried decision.

Part of it also is that it’s simply anathema for coaches to guarantee anyone a starting job. Sometimes, though, such assurance doesn’t need to be said. Nobody questioned whether C.J. Stroud would again be the starter in 2022. In McCord’s case, Day never fully embraced him as the quarterback he felt could lead the Buckeyes to championships.

...

The other factor in McCord’s decision was name, image and likeness compensation. Top quarterbacks in the transfer portal have gotten offers well over $1 million, a source said.

McCord was making substantially less than that in NIL money this season and wanted more, sources said, and OSU was not willing to facilitate that. The combination of not having the assurance of starting and uncertainty about NIL caused McCord to decide to look elsewhere.

Now that it’s over, I don’t know how I will describe McCord’s Ohio State career.

In 2021, some pounded the table for McCord, then a freshman, to be the Buckeyes’ QB1 over Stroud and Jack Miller III. Those pounds increased in volume – in multiple definitions of the word – after McCord completed 13 of 18 passes for 319 yards and two touchdowns as a replacement for Stroud in Ohio State’s 59-7 win over Akron.

However, McCord spent the rest of 2021 and 2022 backing up Stroud as the Rancho Cucamonga, California, native became a two-time Big Ten Offensive Player of the Year and two-time Heisman finalist in his record-breaking Ohio State career.

When it came time for McCord to take the reins, he did so without a firm grasp. McCord’s offseason competition with Devin Brown lasted longer than expected. In fact, Brown may have even won the battle if not for some inconsistent practices late in preseason camp.

No matter, McCord won the competition – in Week 2.

A full-time starter for the rest of the season, McCord completed 229 of 348 passes (65.8%) for 3,170 yards and 24 touchdowns and six interceptions in 2023. Not bad. But context matters here. Two of McCord’s picks came in The Game. They were the difference in the Buckeyes’ 30-24 loss to the Wolverines.

#Loading... The Butterfly Effect.

Had Ohio State defeated Michigan, McCord and the Buckeyes would be the No. 1 overall seed in the College Football Playoff. He would still be Ohio State’s QB1.

But that didn’t happen. Instead, a third consecutive loss to the Wolverines sent the Buckeyes to the Cotton Bowl. It sent McCord to Syracuse.

How will I describe McCord’s Ohio State career?

I’m not sure.

My best guess?

“What if...?”

 WAKE ME UP IN JANUARY. For this section, I want to echo some sentiments Eleven Warriors executive editor Chris Lauderback shared about THE Ohio State University men’s basketball team in his column on Sunday.

Ohio State’s win over UCLA was needed – and bigly.

Following an unacceptable loss to Penn State on Dec. 9, which featured an 18-point comeback in the second half for the Nittany Lions, Ohio State’s matchup with UCLA at the CBS Sports Classic felt like a must-win game. The Buckeyes delivered with a 67-60 defeat of the Bruins.

With New Orleans (No. 284 in KenPom) and West Virginia (No. 131 in KenPom) remaining on the 2023 portion of the calendar, Ohio State should enter the new year with a three-game win streak and an 11-2 record.

That’s great.

But what will the Buckeyes do when the calendar turns to January and February? (This is where we get to Chris’ sentiments). Too many times, Holtmann’s teams start hot but falter in the second half of the season. Here’s some evidence:

OHIO STATE UNDER HEAD COACH CHRIS HOLTMANN
SEASON   NOV-DEC RECORD JAN-MAR RECORD FULL SEASON RECORD   NCAA TOURNEY OUTCOMES
2023-24   9-2 (2 G LEFT) ? 9-2 ?
2022-23   9-3 7-16 16-19 NOT SELECTED
2021-22   8-2 12-10 20-12 1-1 (7 SEED)
2020-21   8-2 13-8 21-10 0-1 (2 SEED)
2019-20   11-2 10-8 21-10 NONE-COVID
2018-19   12-1 8-14 20-15 1-1 (11 SEED)
2017-18   11-4 14-5 25-9 1-1 (5 SEED)
TOTAL   68-16 (81%) 64-61 (51%) 130-76 (63%) 3-4 (0 SWEET 16+)

With Ohio State’s track record under Holtmann in January and February, there’s reason to believe the 2023-24 Buckeyes could falter, like previous teams.

However, as Chris mentioned in his article, there’s also reason to believe the 2023-24 Buckeyes could succeed, unlike previous teams.

Bruce Thornton and Roddy Gayle Jr. combine to create one of the more formidable backcourts in the Big Ten. Jamison Battle, albeit in a small sample size at Ohio State, has proven that he can make shots at all three levels. Felix Okpara, Evan Mahaffey, Zed Key, Dale Bonner, Scotty Middleton and Devin Royal look comfortable in their respective roles for the Buckeyes.

Now, do I expect Ohio State to beat out Purdue (who has five top-25 wins but a loss to... Northwestern) for the Big Ten championship? No. But I do expect the Buckeyes to be one of the teams that nip at the Boilermakers’ heels in conference competition, contend for a title in the Big Ten Tournament and make it to the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament.

Is that too much to ask?

I don’t think so.

However, before we see if Ohio State can accomplish those feats, we must see if the Buckeyes can win games in January and February. If they do, Holtmann could be cooking with grease in Columbus.

Hello. Hey. Hi. How ya dern?

Before we move on, THE Ohio State University women’s basketball team hosts No. 2 UCLA at Value City Arena on Monday. The No. 12 Buckeyes, led by Jacy Sheldon, Cotie McMahon, Taylor Thierry and Celeste Taylor, shared a message on Sunday that fans should wear WHITE to the game.

Ohio State-UCLA will be broadcast on FS1 at 6:30 p.m. The wonderful Andy Anders, Eleven Warriors’ lead basketball reporter, will also have coverage of the matchup for 11W, so be on the lookout for his game recap after the game ends.

 CHAT GPT x BUCKEYE NATION. There’s been a recent trend on ChatGPT where users will prompt their AI to create images of a person and make them more X, Y and Z. More often than not, the users take their creations to the extreme.

Last week, a Reddit user asked ChatGPT to create an image of an Ohio State sports fan. The user repeated the process several times and prompted the AI to make the fan “increasingly unhinged.”

Here are the results.

Which one are you?

 OLYMPIC VILLAGE x OHIO STATE FOOTBALL. You’ve heard of the Skull Session Olympic Village. You’ve heard of Ohio State football. Now, you’ll hear about the most ambitious crossover event since “Avengers: Infinity War” and “Avengers: End Game”: Olympic Village x Ohio State football.

Last week, Ezekiel Elliott’s sister, Aaliyah, signed with the Ohio State track and field team. The program made an official announcement on X (formerly Twitter) on Friday.

Ohio State’s post, which received almost 600,000 views on X, was reposted 75 times. Two of those reposts came from her brother and their mother, Dawn.

When Aaliyah Elliott arrives in Columbus in 2024, she understands there will be a legacy to carry on at Ohio State – not only that of Ezekiel but also of their sister, Lailah, who competed for the Buckeyes track and field team. If Elliott's commitment video is any indication, she’s not afraid of the challenge that could present.

Elliott has competed in several track and field competitions at John Burroughs High School in St. Louis, Missouri, including the 100m, 200m, 100m hurdles and the long jump. In April 2022, she was named Post-Dispatch Athlete of the Week for winning in the 100m race, 100m hurdles and long jump in a single event. In June 2022, she leaped 20 feet, 1 inch in the long jump, setting a school record.

Cheers to all involved for helping Elliott become a Buckeye, namely Ohio State head coach Rosalind Joseph, Elliott and her star-studded family.

Buckeye Nation will watch her career with great interest.

 SONG OF THE DAY. “Orange Crush” - R.E.M.

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