Ohio State football: McCord ends the quarterback competition

We saw everything we needed to see on Saturday to end this quarterback competition for the Ohio State football team. Ryan Day was right to start Kyle McCord a week ago to open the season in Bloomington, Indiana. He was justified in giving McCord the start again this week against Youngstown State. Now that we saw Devin Brown in extended play, it is clear McCord is the starting quarterback going forward.

Ryan Day should come out on Tuesday in his press conference and officially name McCord the starting quarterback. I understand why he didn’t want to do so immediately after the game in the post-game press conference. Day had to see what we all witnessed, and when he watches the game film, he is going to see that McCord took a step forward from week one to week two.

McCord’s performance against Youngstown State solidified him as the man for this job. In his first drive to open the game, McCord connected with high school teammate Marvin Harrison Jr. on a 71-yard touchdown bomb that was the longest in both their careers. Two drives later near the end of the opening quarter, McCord found Harrison Jr. again, this time backpedaling into the back of the end zone as he caught his second score while falling on his backside.

It was a different story for Emeka Egbuka in week two as well. He finished with five receptions for 91 yards and his first touchdown of the season. Last week McCord found it difficult to connect with his top two targets in Indiana. Harrison Jr. had two receptions for 18 yards while Egbuka finished with three catches for 16 yards. Neither never found paydirt.

It was evident that Day made a concerted effort to make sure McCord would connect with his top two targets after failing to get them involved in the opening game. He looked more comfortable in the pocket and found himself getting into a rhythm with his main targets finishing the game going 14/20 for 258 yards, three touchdown passes, and no turnovers, He finished with a quarterback rating of 90.0

When Brown was in, the offense appeared clunky and discombobulated at times. After not getting a very good look in week one, Ohio State football fans witnessed an extended version of Brown on Saturday, and it wasn’t great. Brown went 7/13 passing for 101 yards with no touchdowns and no picks. He was also loose with the football when scrambling, almost fumbling on one occasion. His final quarterback rating was only 15.9.

Brown has been coined as the more athletic option at quarterback, and it seems like Day believes that to be the case, calling several quarterback keepers, but Brown hasn’t appeared as elusive as you would expect. He finished with six rushes, which was tied for the most on the team with both Miyan Williams and Chip Trayanum. However, he only finished with nine yards on the ground.

At this point, there is no reason to drag this on any further. As I stated, Day needs to open his press conference on Tuesday and announce that this is McCord’s team moving forward. This will give McCord and the offense the clarification they need, add the additional reps in practice he needs, and get ready for Western Kentucky as the Ohio State football team prepares for their big trip to South Bend, Indiana in two weeks.