Junior quarterback Kyle McCord (6) completed 19 of 23 passes stacking up 318 yards and three touchdowns through the air during No. 6 Ohio State’s 63-10 win over Western Kentucky Saturday. Credit: Caleb Blake | Photo Editor
Three touchdowns, 497 passing yards and one interception with a 64 percent completion rate.
Those were junior Kyle McCord’s statistics through Ohio State’s first two games when competing for the job against sophomore Devin Brown.
Head coach Ryan Day gave McCord the official nod Sept. 12, to which he responded by not “exactly jumping on the table,” but he did have his “best week of practice,” Day said.
“The more experience I can get, the more opportunity, the more reps, the better I feel like I’ll be,” McCord said. “I just had that mindset going into the practice week and attacking it like a game every single day and I feel like we had a really good week of practice on offense and that showed today.”
McCord had the best game of his career. He put up 318 passing yards, three touchdowns — the longest a 75-yard lob down the middle to junior receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. — had an 82.6 completion rate and no interceptions.
“This week, I kinda used that confidence boost a little bit and just trusted my rules, trusted my reach, trusted my eyes and I think good things happen,” McCord said.
But with 5:39 left in the first quarter, McCord suffered a strip sack and the ball was recovered by the defense.
Day said he was interested to see how McCord would respond in their next drive.
“Are they gonna go into their shell or just keep pushing forward?” Day said.
Cue TreVeyon Henderson.
McCord’s handoff to the junior running back on Ohio State’s following possession turned into a 7-yard touchdown, and from then on it was nearly all Buckeyes.
“I wanted to really push the envelope because we have to turn it up based on where we’re going,” Day said. “So he responded. It was good, he wasn’t fazed, and that’s important because there’s going to be plays that don’t go exactly the way we design them and there’s going to be tough moments and we’re gonna have to respond, and that’s what being competitively tough is all about.”
All three of McCord’s touchdowns came in the second quarter, all as results of one-, three- and four-play drives.
Junior receiver Emeka Egbuka, who caught two of the touchdowns, said McCord didn’t have him completely convinced in the beginning, but he’s glad to have been proven wrong.
“I had my questions about it,” Egbuka said. “He answered all of them. He’s a great leader for our offense.”
McCord will need to continue the route he is on as the Buckeyes face off in South Bend, Indiana, Saturday against No. 9 Notre Dame, his first starting job versus a ranked opponent.
The Fighting Irish are third in the NCAA’s pass-protection defense rankings, which lines up against perhaps Ohio State’s most impressive strengths.
McCord said the win over Western Kentucky gave the team the confidence boost that it needed, but it needs to be built on.
“The biggest thing is just continuing to ramp up that intensity in practice because we know what it’s going to be next week in South Bend and it’s a really good team and a tough environment,” McCord said. “We’re just gonna have to ramp it up and continue on this trajectory that we’re on right now.”
McCord now has 815 total passing yards and six touchdowns on the season.
Given the questions and anticipation of a top-10 opponent, all eyes will be on him and how he performs in primetime at Notre Dame Stadium Saturday.
