Kyle McCord will start for Buckeyes in home opener vs. Youngstown State
COLUMBUS — Ohio State saw some good and some not-so-good from starting quarterback Kyle McCord on Saturday at Indiana.
The Buckeyes are ready to give him his second straight start after showing promise in the season opener. Ohio State coach Ryan Day confirmed Tuesday during his weekly press conference that McCord, the junior quarterback, will start in the home-opening matchup Saturday against Youngstown State (Noon, Big Ten Network).
Day also made sure to mention that second-year quarterback Devin Brown will also play Saturday after taking just three snaps in the first three quarters of the season-opening win last week.
“Yes, but try to get Devin in more,” Day said Tuesday about the plan to start McCord this weekend.
McCord certainly wasn’t bad in his second career start for Ohio State on Saturday. He finished the afternoon 20 of 33 passing for 239 yards and an interception. He did throw a touchdown pass to star receiver Marvin Harrison Jr., but that play was called back by a penalty.
Overall, Day saw plenty of promise from his junior starting quarterback.
“I thought in the third quarter during those couple of drives, he got in a rhythm and made some nice throws,” Day said of McCord. “… The throw down the middle to Cade was a really nice throw. That was big. But some plays certainly we want to have back. I think, once again, we’ll have to look at the film and see, I think it was a mixed bag. Overall, we’ll see if it was a mixed bag to the positive or negative. And that’s part of watching the film: sometimes you think coming out of the game and something happened, you didn’t quite see it that way on film. We’ll get on it, identify it and move forward.”
Ohio State will move forward with McCord entering the home-opening tune-up against Youngstown State, a program that is good at its level of college football but figures to provide little resistance to the Buckeyes offensive attack this week.
For the second straight week, Ohio State will roll with Kyle McCord as its QB1. How the snaps are dispersed and where the quarterback competition goes from there still remains to be seen.
Want more coverage of McCord’s start?
Andy’s Analytics: Breaking down the numbers from Ohio State-Indiana
‘I know I can be better’: Kyle McCord shows inexperience but also resolve at Indiana
Picking three impressive Kyle McCord throws from season-opening start
