Ryan Day refused to promise Kyle McCord that he would be the starting quarterback at Ohio State in 2024. As a result, the rising senior chose to leave.
McCord officially committed to Syracuse on Sunday after flirting with Nebraska over the last few weeks. The 21-year-old signal-caller was all set to play for the Cornhuskers until Dylan Raiola requested that they do not take another quarterback if he is to commit.
McCord was processed out because of the five-star freshman and ultimately landed with the Orange.
Why did Kyle McCord transfer?
A four-star recruit in the college football recruiting Class of 2021, McCord sat behind C.J. Stroud in each of his first two years in Columbus. He was named the starter prior to his junior season after beating out Devin Brown during fall camp and started all 12 games for the Buckeyes.
Ohio State lost just one game — The Game — with McCord at the helm. However, his two ugly interceptions against Michigan had a major impact on missing out on the Big Ten Championship and College Football Playoff.
Despite his singular loss, as Day looked ahead to the upcoming bowl game against Missouri and into the future, he refused to make any formal declarations regarding the quarterback position. The head coach never fully embraced McCord and would not do so while considering his options moving forward.
When you come up short, the bottom line is you got to look at everything, because you didn’t get it done. And that’s the thing that is just sobering here. At 11-1, you come up short on the last possession, it’s just not good enough. So you got to look at everything, and we will look at everything.
— Ryan Day about the Cotton Bowl.
Day was even less committal regarding 2024.
You know, I can’t sit here and tell you I know for sure about any of those things right now.
But everyone’s gonna have an opportunity to compete and get after it during bowl practice and then when it’s time to go play in the game, we’ll figure out who should get the reps and then go from there. So yeah, I don’t really have a great answer for that just yet.
— Ryan Day about tOSU’s future at QB
Although McCord would have been the favorite to start next season as the incumbent, he wanted a more definitive answer about his role moving forward. That led him to leave.
In addition, McCord played in five games as a freshman which made him ineligible to redshirt. He will not be able to take a fifth year of eligibility, so he was unwilling to return for his last year on the collegiate level if there was any uncertainty surrounding the starting job.
Money may have also played a role.
According to the Columbus Dispatch, McCord’s departure also had something to do with NIL money. Many top quarterbacks are getting paid up to $1.5 million. McCord was getting far less.
Ohio State would not pay him more.
Between the lack of assurance from Day and lack of money from the Buckeyes’ collective, Kyle McCord chose to bounce. And now, after committing to play for the Orange, his future is set.
Unfortunately, even though there is more money flowing in upstate New York than there was before the firing of Dino Babers and hiring of Fran Brown, Syracuse does not have an NIL fund on equal ground with a program like Ohio State. Perhaps the “boosters” were able to find enough money to secure McCord with a lucrative financial package for his one-year rental. Perhaps he left Columbus in search of more money and a starting job, but only got the latter.