The Ohio State Buckeyes will be playing with a new signal caller as they prepare for the realigned Big Ten. After what many fans will view as a disappointing season, the Ohio State Buckeyes found themselves on the outside, looking in to the college playoff football picture. Having received news that they would be playing in the Cotton Bowl, that turned out to not be the only important piece of news to come out of Columbus this week.
Ohio State Buckeyes QB Entering Transfer Portal
In a report from 247 Sports, news of Kyle McCord entering the transfer portal broke Monday headlines. The native out of Philadelphia, had attended Ohio State for the past three years, backing up probable NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year CJ Stroud. After an 11-1 season that saw their sole loss to their rivals up north, Michigan, for a program with such high standards, it was largely viewed as a disappointing season.
Ohio State Buckeyes Non-Committal Regarding Starting Quarterback
For the Ohio State Buckeyes, losing a non conference game, or potentially dropping a close match against a Big Ten opponent can be forgiven. But losing for a third year in a row to Michigan is not something that fans will easily forgive or forget.
Following the playoff committee decision, Ryan Day said the following regarding who would play in their upcoming matchup against Missouri at the AT&T Stadium.
I’m not gonna really get into all that right now…We’ll just kind of see how practice goes.
Coach Day went on to elaborate more on the scheduling and game plan preparation aspect of having a Bowl Game so many weeks out. But from the press conference he seemed very hesitant to want to go into any further details regarding the quarterback situation.
In this type of scenario, most coaches would go to bat for their their starting play caller. Even go above and beyond to defend their starter when public pressure is demanding a switch. Coach Day simply stated that everything needs to be reevaluated including potentially the role of Kyle McCord.
It is likely that he already knew which way McCord was leaning, or that the lack of endorsement did not sit well with McCord and helped to influence his transfer decision.
Ohio State Buckeyes Quarterback Year In Review
With his first year as a starter it was never going to be an easy task to replace a talent such as Stroud, and it was not an opportunity that was simply given to him. During the preseason Coach Day announced that Kyle McCord and Devin Brown would be competing for the starting position, into the season.
The plan was for McCord to start two games, then for Brown to start two games, and to name a season long starter after that. However, after the first two games, despite wanting to see how Brown would look in a live game with the first team offense, the reins were handed to McCord.
While anything can happen in the transfer carousel, expect Ohio State to have an elite caliber athlete playing quarterback next season. Especially with 5 star Air Noland coming to Columbus next fall, fans will have a lot to look forward to.