Kyle McCord, the former Ohio State starting quarterback who entered the NCAA transfer portal earlier this month, is bound for Syracuse.
McCord announced on Sunday that he is committed to join the Orange for his senior season after visiting the school this weekend.
In one season as a starter for the Buckeyes, he threw for 3,170 yards with 24 touchdowns and six interceptions with a 161.64 passer rating that ranked 14th among quarterbacks in the Football Bowl Subdivision, helping keep Ohio State unbeaten and in contention for the College Football Playoff until the last weekend of the regular season.
But he did not hit the lofty standard set by his immediate predecessors at Ohio State, a group that included C.J. Stroud, Justin Fields and Dwayne Haskins Jr., who were all finalists for the Heisman Trophy in their first seasons as starters. McCord was a third-team All-Big Ten selection.
The debut from McCord did not cement his status as the Buckeyes’ starting quarterback for next season.
On the day before McCord put his name in the portal, coach Ryan Day was noncommittal about him remaining at the top of the depth chart, suggesting a competition was brewing.
McCord had earlier in the year been in a tight battle for the starting job with redshirt freshman Devin Brown, and the gap was close enough that it continued into September. It took two games before McCord was named the starter indefinitely.
The transfer to Syracuse allows McCord to return to the Northeast. He grew up in Mount Laurel, New Jersey, and attended high school at St. Joseph’s Prep in Philadelphia, where he developed into a five-star recruit.
Perhaps the bigger draw, though, is that the Orange have an opening on the depth chart for a starting quarterback.
Garrett Shrader, a transfer from Mississippi State who has started since 2021, is due to move on, and Syracuse has only two other scholarship quarterbacks returning on its roster between Braden Davis, who was a redshirt freshman this fall, and Carlos Del Rio-Wilson, who was a redshirt sophomore. Both started a game in place of Shrader this season when he was unavailable. Jakhari Williams, a three-star quarterback from Macon, Georgia, is also verbally committed in the upcoming signing class.
The Orange have a new coach after hiring Fran Brown, a New Jersey native who was the defensive backs coach at Georgia, to replace Dino Babers, who was fired after eight seasons last month. They went 6-6 this year and face South Florida in the Boca Raton Bowl on Thursday.
Before zeroing in on Syracuse, McCord had also taken a look at Nebraska and visited Lincoln earlier in the week.
But the potential of him ending up with the Cornhuskers seemed to cool as Nebraska has also been looking to flip Dylan Raiola, one of the top-ranked high school quarterbacks in the class of 2024.
Joey Kaufman covers Ohio State football for The Columbus Dispatch and can be reached at jkaufman@dispatch.com.