Ryan Day names Kyle McCord Ohio State's starting QB

The wait is finally over in Columbus. Ohio State Buckeyes head coach Ryan Day has announced that Kyle McCord is going to be the team’s starting quarterback for Week 1.

Day also said that Devin Brown will play during the team’s first game of the season.

The decision comes ahead of Ohio State starting its season on the road against Big Ten rival Indiana. After that, the Buckeyes will come home to play Youngstown State and Western Kentucky before playing one of the most interesting non-conference games of the season on the road against Notre Dame.

Of course, there’s always a chance that the starter changes again for one reason or another, be it poor play or injury. However, for now, Ohio State has its quarterback for the 2023 season.

More on the Ohio State quarterback battle

The Ohio State quarterback battle was between Kyle McCord and Devin Brown. From the outside looking in, it looked like Ryan Day couldn’t make a bad choice in this quarterback battle. After all, these are both former five-star recruits, according to the On3 Industry Rankings,  in the Class of 2022 and Class of 2021 respectively.

Devin Brown appeared in just two games last season and didn’t throw a pass. Kyle McCord has significantly more experience, with 606 passing yards and three touchdowns in 12 games played. However, it’s worth pointing out that he typically played in mop-up duty.

Tristan Gebbia is another quarterback in Ohio State’s quarterback room. However, he really wasn’t competing to start. Instead, still a player, he transferred in to start learning about coaching, which he hopes to make his profession. He recently broke down both Devin Brown and Kyle McCord.

“I think that they have a lot of similar traits and then there’s some things they do a little differently. I think that Devin has a way of extending plays, I think that he does a good job there. Kyle’s been around it a little bit longer so he’s got some good qualities as far as depth of knowledge in the system. But I think Devin’s catching up and he’s been doing a great job in the offseason meeting and talking ball all the time,” Gebbia said.

“It’s really impressive honestly the knowledge they both have and I think that’s a good tip of the cap to Coach Day, and Coach Hartline, and Coach Fitch, and Coach Dennis who have been working with these guys for a long time. You would think they’ve played a lot of games, let’s put it that way, because they’re both very sharp.”

Gebbia added that he believes both Ohio State quarterbacks could be starters at most schools in the country.

“Yeah, obviously they were very highly touted recruits,” Gebbia said. “They’re competing to play at one of the blue-chip programs in the country. I mean you’re an analyst, I’m sure that you would feel the same way and I think that they’re very talented players for sure.”