One of the more viral moments of bowl season came from an unlikely source – Boca Raton Bowl.
In a 45-0 rout of the Syracuse Orange, the story wasn’t necessarily USF’s first winning season since 2018 or Bulls quarterback Byrum Brown becoming the second quarterback in USF history to have over 4,000 total yards of offense in a season, the story was about a quarterback who did not even play.
Kyle McCord’s body language when ESPN’s camera caught him in the third quarter with the Orange down 38-0 fueled social media.
McCord took the reins of the starting quarterback for Ohio State this season, guiding the Buckeyes to an 11-1 record and a berth in the Cotton Bowl, to go along with 2,899 yards, completing 66.4% of his passes, with 24 touchdowns.
His single loss came against Michigan, the third consecutive defeat to the rival team up north.
Hey Google, what does regret look like? https://t.co/CL1CcIGEeU
— Brutus Stark (@iron_brutus) December 22, 2023
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McCord’s performance in that game wasn’t all that bad, despite throwing the game clinching interception to Michigan’s Rod Moore, McCord was 18 for 30 passing for 271 yards and two touchdowns.
Ryan Day said following the Michigan game about the Moore interception, “Yeah they were in a zone coverage and we needed a touchdown there, I think right inside of 30 seconds. And then they were in deep coverage there, so I’m not sure even if he hadn’t gotten hit what would have happened there.”
Throughout the Michigan post game press conference, Day’s initial reactions seemed to not blame or fault McCord at all.
Between the Michigan game and December 4th, something changed in Day’s assessment of McCord because when he came to Day for assurances he would be the starting quarterback of the Buckeyes, Day could not guarantee that for McCord.
Day recently broke his silence on McCord after his December 17th commitment to Syracuse, Day said of McCord, “We wish him nothing but the best, he played some good football here and spent three years here and made a lot of relationships here. He’s committed to another school now, and he’ll do well there. We certainly wish him nothing but the best. There’s a lot of guys in that room that are about him a lot.”
In a lot of ways, you cannot blame McCord for transferring. With a season left of eligibility, and obvious desires to play in the NFL, he needed to know where he stood with Day and Ohio State.
When that wasn’t assured, McCord leveraged the portal to better secure his future.
The question now is the Ohio State quarterback room’s future secure?
When you consider many around the Buckeye program did not consider McCord’s level of play up to the standard they are accustomed to in and around Columbus.
The standard is high when you consider that since 2012, Ohio State quarterbacks have collected 10 of 12 Big Ten Quarterback of the Year awards and eight of the nine Big Ten Offensive Player of the Year awards (the ninth being 2023 recipient Ohio State wide receiver Marvin Harrison Jr.).
Even former Buckeye CJ Stroud, who won Big Ten Offensive Player of the Year and Quarterback of the Year in 2021 and 2022, is often criticized, similar to McCord, for being winless against “The Team Up North.”
In a lot of ways, the Ohio State quarterback situation came about when Quinn Ewers, who opted out of high school to play at Ohio State, decided to transfer to Texas.
The ramifications were that Ohio State put all their eggs into one basket with Ewers, who did not want to sit behind Stroud. When Ewers got to Ohio State, it threw a lot off, timing wise for Ohio State.
In Medina, Ohio, the No. 1 overall quarterback in the Class of 2022 Drew Allar, Penn State was able to convince the Medina High prospect to commit, and after Ewers departure and many ovations for the five-star quarterback, he maintained his commitment to Penn State.
Stroud was NFL ready, his performance in the Sugar Bowl against Georgia displayed for NFL scouts that he was worth building a franchise around. Considering the Houston Texans are in a first place tie (as of this writing) in their division, Stroud is the future of that franchise.
That left McCord, redshirt freshman Devin Brown, and true freshman Lincoln Kienholz.
McCord is now gone, and Day now has a competition between Brown and Kienholz ahead of the Cotton Bowl against Missouri, “I think that competition is very, very healthy,” Day said. “I think Lincoln’s really been coming on and looked good. We’re excited to see Air get going here the spring. But, fired up to see the way Devin’s been practicing the last few weeks. It’s been great for him, now that he’s healthy. His ankle was feeling better and it was kind of like, OK, take this thing and run and see how the next couple of weeks go in terms of the way he handles himself.”
Air Noland, who Day is referencing to, is a 247 Sports composite five-star quarterback in the Class of 2024, who recently signed with Ohio State.
Noland has drawn comparisons to Washington’s Michael Penix Jr. for being an electric southpaw who has all the arm talent to make all the throws, he passed for 10,164 yards and 126 touchdowns in his prep career, and is elusive enough with his feet to execute the read option like many Ohio State quarterbacks before him.
With such inexperience in the quarterback room, the portal was loaded with experienced quarterbacks that could have made a difference whether it was Will Howard, Dillon Gabriel, Riley Leonard, Cameron Ward, or DJ Uiagalelei, Day is taking a calculated risk not pursuing experience under center and banking on the future.
To me, it would be unfair to expect Noland as a true freshman to be what his successful predecessors were the last decade at Ohio State. Could he? Maybe. We just don’t know yet.
There was a reason Kyle McCord won the job over Devin Brown entering the 2023 season, to me, if McCord wasn’t the answer to many Ohio State fans’ minds, neither will Brown.
2024 right now is setting up, if Noland isn’t the real deal, one where Ohio State fans and Day will regret not bettering their quarterback situation.
