COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) – Happy marriages do not end in divorce, which should tell us something about Kyle McCord’s unexpected departure from Ohio State football as the transfer portal opened early Monday morning.
Nine days before, McCord dropped back into the pocket and fired a last ball to Marvin Harrison Jr. If he had finished his comeback at Michigan, the Buckeyes would have been the No. 1 overall seed in the College Football Playoff. Another dramatic last-second torrent of heroics would secure the rivalry’s renowned standing.
Then: A missed block, a jarring hit, a pass falling into a defender’s hands.
Instead of doubts dismissed, at least for an especially vocal portion of the fan base, doubts were confirmed.
McCord was on the verge of crafting a story that would cement him as The Game’s saviour — victor of a questionable foe and breaker of Michigan’s first losing streak in a generation. Instead, he became the face of coach Ryan Day’s first failed QB search. Since McCord eventually pulled the plug — sources say he was not urged to quit, and OSU anticipated him back in 2024 — he may bear more than his fair share of the responsibility in the eyes of the public.
Not fair. Day owns his first failed quarterback project. He recruited McCord, took his commitment over that of other prospects, coached him for three years and named him the starter. McCord represented, from top to bottom, the first conventional recruitment and development process of Day’s tenure.
Day earned some benefit of the doubt with one record-shattering season with Dwayne Haskins, providing an obvious soft landing spot for Justin Fields’ transfer and catching late-blooming lightning in a bottle with C.J. Stroud. Day’s influence in the performance of those quarterbacks cannot be ignored.
Neither can we forget how disastrous the McCord incident was from start to finish.
When asked to evaluate his quarterback’s performance immediately following The Game, Day focused on turnovers and the loss. The response had not changed by the time he spoke at a Selection Sunday press conference. With candour that McCord was likely to find uncomfortable, Day refused to say whether the quarterback would start against Missouri in the Cotton Bowl.
When McCord’s intention to leave was made public the next morning, this offered vital background.
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