Consistency, late push helped Kyle McCord earn starting nod for Buckeyes opener

COLUMBUS — Ohio State coach Ryan Day knew what he was going to be asked first Tuesday in his press conference to preview the upcoming season opener at Indiana.

So when the question came first, who the starting quarterback would be, Day gave a smile and stepped up to the podium ready to deliver the answer most of college football has been waiting for.

After months of deliberating between junior Kyle McCord and redshirt freshman Devin Brown, Day finally made a decision: McCord will start for the Buckeyes on Saturday at Indiana, earning the first-team reps to open the season. But Day also made sure to say clearly that Brown will play meaningful snaps, hinting that the quarterback competition isn’t quite settled just yet.

“I think that Kyle’s consistency the last couple of weeks allowed him to be the starter,” Day said. “He deserves that. I also think Devin deserves to play in the game as well. So how much? That’s still to be determined. But we’ve at least come up with that conclusion here.”

That’s new for Day. Just last week, he talked about both quarterbacks playing as he declined to name a starting quarterback. He instead insisted that if one of the signal-callers stepped up and earned the job, Day would announce them as the starter for at least the Indiana game.

He previously talked about how there was no gap between McCord and Brown. Now he’s talking about how wide the gap is — one that wasn’t there last week and has emerged in the last 10 days.

McCord did that in the last week. Now he’s QB1 at Ohio State.

“I think it’s enough to be named starter, and then they’re both going to play,” Day said. “So yeah, it’s not a sizable gap, but it’s enough for me to name a starter.”

Day wasn’t going to force himself into a corner by naming McCord as the permanent starter. That decision will still be made on the field beginning Saturday in Bloomington. McCord could lock the job up. Brown could light up the Hoosiers and made the competition interesting again.

For now, Kyle McCord is the starting quarterback for the Buckeyes after an impressive last two weeks of practice. And Ohio State has a first-team leader heading into the first road test of the season.

“I think that Devin made a really strong push about 10 days ago, two weeks ago, and then Kyle responded with really consistent play,” Day said. “And that was a good response. That was very encouraging. Now it’s time to go play in games, though. And we certainly have seen enough in practice to believe that both guys can perform in the game. Now it’s time to go put it on the field.”

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