Ryan Day praises Kyle McCord for how he handled push from Devin Brown

There’s no question that the quarterback competition this offseason in Columbus was a tight one, as Kyle McCord and Devin Brown battled all offseason for Ohio State‘s starting quarterback job. And on Tuesday head coach Ryan Day announced that McCord would be the team’s starter heading into their Week 1 matchup on the road versus Indiana this Saturday following their tightly contested competition.

Day previously mentioned that in the instance of a tiebreaker the quarterback that responds when their back is against the wall would win the job, recently speaking on how McCord was able to battle through adversity to earn the title as QB1.

“I’m pleased with that, I think that is exactly how things shook out a little bit this preseason,” Day said. “I think that Devin made a real strong push about 10 days ago, two weeks ago and then Kyle responded with some really consistent play, and that was a good response and that was very encouraging.”

McCord had one year of experience on Brown, spending the last two seasons as a backup to current Houston Texnas quarterback CJ Stroud. In his two seasons as a backup, McCord completed 70% of his 58 pass attempts for 606 yards, three touchdowns, and two interceptions.

But despite never appearing in a collegiate game in his career, Brown was still able to push McCord for the starting job as a sophomore and prove to the entire Ohio State team that he’ll be more than ready when his number is called for the Buckeyes

“Now it’s time to play in games though, and we certainly have seen enough in practice to believe that both guys can perform in a game and now it’s time to put it on the field,” Day said. “When you’re in the game you really get an idea of what is going on. In practice, you have controlled settings and you try to make them as game-like as possible. But again, now time to go play.”

Brown and McCord were very similar recruits in their respective recruiting classes, both ranked top 50 prospects and both ranked the No. 5 quarterbacks in their classes according to On3’s Industry Ranking, a complete and equally weighted industry-generated average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies.

But after fighting off Brown in their quarterback battle, McCord will now lead the Buckeyes into battle this Saturday when they take on Indiana at 3:30 p.m. ET in a Big Ten matchup airing on CBS.