Kyle McCord’s year in Syracuse: A star quarterback rediscovers his joy after leaving Ohio State

Syracuse, N.Y. — As Syracuse quarterback Kyle McCord diced up the Georgia Tech defense in the second game of SU’s season, his father wiped away tears with an orange giveaway towel.

McCord had spent his childhood and teenage years reaching one of the sport’s pinnacles, earning the starting quarterback job at Ohio State, only to learn how unhospitable life can be on those peaks.

His performances were nit-picked. He was saddled with a derisive nickname.

He produced strong numbers, but not enough to secure a starting job.

He won lots of games, but not enough to satisfy a demanding fan base.

The position that McCord worked years to reach – through early mornings at Planet Fitness, commutes to an elite high school program and workouts with the best coaches in New Jersey – didn’t bring him much joy last season at Ohio State. Those who know him best say he didn’t look like the person they knew.

One year in Syracuse has changed that.

Surrounded by teammates he grew up with, supported by coaches who believe in him, McCord has found success, carried the Orange with him and re-discovered the happiness the sport has always brought him.

He is once again the Kyle McCord who throws downfield with confidence, spikes footballs after runs down the sidelines and hurls himself through the air and over the goal line. He talks trash, wields imaginary AK-47s in locker-room celebrations, is one of the best quarterbacks in college football and is on pace to rewrite most of Syracuse’s single-season passing records with two home games remaining.

He has brought instant credibility to a program recently known for mediocrity, immediate success for a new coach trying to change that and made the Orange a more attractive destination for any high-level quarterback considering a new home.

McCord is thriving. He is appreciated. Most of all, he is happy.

Two games into the season his father saw it all happening. It was enough to bring him to tears.

“I looked over at my husband and he was crying,” Kyle’s mother, Stacy, said. “There were tears coming down. ... He was so happy to see Kyle so happy. We knew that he just made the best decision for himself.”

“This is the most fun I’ve ever had playing football,” McCord said.

‘That’s who he’s been’

At 4 years old, McCord would arrive home from preschool and immediately plop himself next to a green felt mat, complete with the markings of a football field. He’d line up two teams — red and blue — and describe the action as he moved plastic players around the faux field.

He began playing football the next year after his father, a former quarterback at Rutgers, convinced his mother that learning to play the game with technique and pads would be safer than the unprotected tackling he was receiving in the backyard from his older brother, Cole.

He played against older players throughout his youth and his parents moved him out of his local football league in Mount Laurel, New Jersey, placing him in a more competitive league in Pennsauken that included a young Duce Chestnut and Denis Jaquez Jr., players who would become his future teammates.

Chestnut still laughs at the memory of McCord getting frustrated with his father, one of the team’s coaches, because he felt he wasn’t getting the plays called fast enough.

No matter the degree of difficulty, McCord found success. He earned his first college scholarship offer as an eighth grader.

After a summer of attending 7-on-7 camps, McCord attended one at the University of Michigan.

His mother said that Jim Harbaugh promised to follow him closely. Central Michigan offered a scholarship, telling the family it was unlikely McCord would ever sign with the Chippewas but the school wanted to be the first to offer.

One year earlier, McCord had started lifting weights for the first time. A pediatrician had warned him not to start until he was 13 because his body was still growing.

Stacy said that the first day he was permitted, Kyle began waking them up at 4:30 a.m. to get rides to a nearby gym to lift before middle school.

One parent woke up, dropped him off and returned to crawl back into bed. The other set an alarm to pick him up.

Eventually, they concluded they weren’t getting enough sleep between wake-up calls. They joined McCord at the gym, the whole family putting in 90 minutes of work before the sun came up.

Before McCord set the tone in the Syracuse locker room, he was setting it at Mount Laurel’s Planet Fitness.

Lifting, McCord said, was necessary to prepare him to play at St. Joseph’s Prep, an all-boys private school and football factory in Philadelphia that requires students to wear coats and ties and take four years of Latin.

McCord left his house before 7 a.m. each day to make the 45-minute commute.

He remembers getting caught with a button undone underneath his tie early in his first year. A Spanish teacher suggested that if he wanted to dress like that, he should return to public school.

“It was a little bit of a culture shock,” McCord said. “It was a lot.”

It was the toll required to play on one of the area’s top teams, to work with the best coaches, to play a national schedule in high school and win three state titles. He paid it happily.

“He’s been in the spotlight a long time,” said Gabe Infante, who coached McCord for his first two years at St. Joseph’s Prep and is now assistant head coach for Manny Diaz at Duke.

“He’s been under pressure a long time. He’s handled big responsibilities a long time. That’s who he’s been for a long time.”

‘I see a kid having fun again’

That spotlight turned against McCord at Ohio State last year, an experience he has been careful discussing since he arrived at Syracuse.

After sitting his first two seasons, McCord won 11 games during his first year as a starter last year. He threw for 3,170 yards and 24 touchdowns. The Buckeyes’ only loss came to rival Michigan by six points before the Wolverines went on to win the national title.

At many places — including Syracuse — those results would lead to a quarterback being worshipped.

At Ohio State, a school that measures success in national titles and wins over its rival, it wasn’t enough.

The most critical segment of the Buckeye fan base gave him a derisive nickname, “Honda McCord,” a play on the title given to his star wide receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. (Maserati Marv).

McCord followed three first-round NFL draft picks at Ohio State. As a first-year quarterback who played most of the year on a pair of injured ankles, his performances were compared to Dwayne Haskins, Justin Fields and CJ Stroud.

“It’s hard enough as a grown man to go through that,” said Infante, who coached against McCord last year as an assistant at Penn State. “To be a young man, as hard as he works, and to deal with the backlash — whatever your opinion is about how things went down, that’s hard.”

Those who watched McCord’s early development say they could see he wasn’t happy in that fishbowl.

He wasn’t the same player they knew from years before, the one who pushed the ball downfield, played fearlessly and showed off his passion.

After throwing just 48 passes more than 20 yards downfield at Ohio State last season, McCord has already launched 58 this season for the Orange. His grade on deep throws is No. 3 in country, according to Pro Football Focus.

After scrambling just seven times last season, McCord has already gone on the run 13 times for Syracuse, including a run down the sidelines and a spike that inspired his teammates against Georgia Tech.

“When we went to play them at Penn State, and I was watching as we were getting ready to play them, I saw a kid that was playing not to make mistakes more than the kid that I knew,” Infante said.

“When I watch him now, I see a kid having fun again.”

McCord’s final days at Ohio State began with a loss to Michigan. A week later, head coach Ryan Day declined to say if McCord would start the team’s bowl game or enter the following season as the team’s starter.

McCord entered the transfer portal the next day.

He has provided few specifics about the conversations that cemented his break-up with Ohio State. He has talked mostly in generalities.

In a podcast hosted by Jordan Palmer, who McCord trained with during the offseason, the quarterback said the school made a business decision and that he made one in return. He declined to specify what that business decision was when asked by Syracuse.com.

“The conversation happened behind closed doors,” McCord said earlier this year. “There will be a time and place for it to eventually come out. Long story short, I thought we should move in one direction. They didn’t see it that way.”

McCord has gone out of his way not to say anything bad about his old school or its fan base.

He said there were good times at Ohio State. He loved his teammates. He enjoyed leading a comeback win over Notre Dame.

He thanked Ohio State’s coaches for giving him a chance to play college football at the highest level. He has praised the fan base for allowing him to experience the sport at peak intensity.

Day has also remained cordial in public, saying only that he is happy to see McCord succeed at his new school.

The closest anyone has come to lobbing a grenade into the calm was Syracuse head coach Fran Brown, who quipped he should send Day a bottle of champagne as a thank you for his star quarterback.

A cork-popping emoji has become a signature way for Syracuse fans to celebrate McCord’s touchdowns (24-and-counting) on social media.

Asked again about his departure after Ohio State lost its first game of the season and McCord’s replacement at Ohio State, Will Howard, intentionally slid on the final play of the game and expired the clock, McCord stayed as disciplined in his approach as he has with his gameday preparation.

“Maybe someday,” McCord said.

“It wouldn’t matter if I wanted to point fingers. At the end of the day what happened, happened. If I were to share my story, I don’t think anyone cares. The biggest thing was just to turn the page and move on. ... I knew the truth (about my abilities) would get out if I continued to work hard.”

‘The stars have aligned’

Brown was the first coach to visit McCord when he opened his recruitment, flying to Columbus the day he entered the transfer portal to visit him in his apartment.

The Orange emerged as an early favorite alongside Nebraska. McCord’s decision was simplified when five-star freshman Dylan Raiola decommitted from Georgia and told the Cornhuskers he was interested in a family legacy at the school, where his uncle is an assistant coach.

McCord said Nebraska head coach Matt Rhule told him the Cornhuskers expected to take the freshman. If they did, they wouldn’t be taking a transfer.

By the time Raiola announced his decision, McCord had set his sights on the school that made him its top priority.

When the McCord family came to visit Syracuse they sat down with Brown in his office. They reminisced on old times.

Brown had watched Kyle play as a child, lured to the field by conversations between Derek, who works in medical sales, and his wife, Teara, who works as a nurse.

Derek had talked up his son. Brown wanted to see what the hype was about.

In Brown’s office, the McCord family reflected about how much football meant to their son. They told him how much he loved it. They told the coach how much they wanted that for him again.

From that kernel of conversation came Little League Kyle, the play-making vision of McCord that Brown has repeatedly put forward as his ideal version.

It helped that many within the Syracuse program already knew him that way.

McCord had played in front of offensive coordinator Jeff Nixon on his first youth football team, where he was a teammate of Will Nixon. His father and the offensive coordinator regularly chatted while watching them play.

Seeking tougher competition, McCord joined a team that included Duce Chestnut and Denis Jaquez. They won a Little League championship together.

He knew quarterbacks coach Nunzio Campanile from workouts hosted by former New York Giants quarterback Phil Simms and his sons. He traveled to camps with Fadil Diggs as the two grew into the top prospects in New Jersey.

If McCord wanted to get back to playing like a kid again, Syracuse seemed to be the perfect place.

“I looked at Kyle and I said I feel like the stars have aligned,” Stacy said.

‘He’s a simple guy’

They have aligned for Brown and Syracuse, too.

The coach has worked to overhaul a football program that had grown accustomed to losing. He set the tone by bringing in a quarterback who almost always wins.

McCord has lost just six games as a starting quarterback since taking over his sophomore year at St. Joseph’s Prep.

He lost national showcase games against Marietta (Georgia) and IMG Academy in his junior year of high school. He lost last year’s season finale against Michigan playing at Ohio State. He has lost three times this season with the Orange.

The first defeat at Syracuse came on McCord’s birthday weekend against Stanford on Sept. 20. About 20 family members came to watch and planned to gather on the field afterwards for photos.

When McCord found them after the game only four remained: his parents, his older brother and his girlfriend of about six years.

No one needed to be told McCord would not celebrate after a loss.

When McCord threw five interceptions against Pittsburgh the following month, the loss raised questions about the possibility of a third straight Syracuse collapse late in the season.

Instead, McCord set the tone for the team two days later.

“I think he was over it by Monday,” Brown said.

The quarterback is known for spending as much time watching film in Syracuse’s football facility as his coaches. He struggles to sleep after losses.

He has input in the offensive gameplan. The offense is built around his skillset. Brown even involved McCord in recruiting.

He speaks with authority about the entire roster. He is a conduit between coaches and players. His expectations of teammates match those of his coach.

Before games, McCord is the only player on team that goes through the entire warm-up period in his helmet. He doesn’t see the point in making a single throw where he isn’t preparing as best he can.

“He is a simple guy,” said Matt Simms, who works for ESPN and helped train McCord when he was in high school. “And I don’t mean that in a derogatory way. He loves his family, his girlfriend and football. That’s pretty much all he needs.”

McCord arrived at Syracuse as the team’s high-priced offseason acquisition. He signed an agreement with SU Football NIL, a group founded by former football player Joe Burton that was involved in all of the team’s marquee offseason acquisitions. He has his own weekly radio show, makes multiple other appearances and has his own flavor of potato chips.

Some throughout college sports warned these benefits would spawn jealousy and tear teams apart as athletes adjusted to being allowed to be paid.

Instead, McCord has brought the Orange together, galvanizing a roster that went through one of the country’s largest offseason overhauls.

When asked by reporters which returning players were showing good leadership on the first day of spring practice, Brown listed off SU veterans like LeQuint Allen, Derek McDonald and Alijah Clark.

Then he mentioned McCord, who had arrived just four months earlier.

Brown touted competition at nearly every position during his first offseason but never made much of an effort to hide who the team’s starting quarterback would be.

The situation at Syracuse made that easier.

The teammates McCord grew up with in New Jersey already respected him. Veterans who had endured middling results were inspired by his reputation.

If there was anyone who was reluctant to embrace the team’s new leader, McCord won them over quickly through a combination of professionalism and personality.

McCord developed a reputation for being among the team’s hardest workers in the weight room, its most competitive personalities and a fun teammate to be around.

McCord was the first to greet wide receiver Justus Ross-Simmons on his recruiting visit. Wide receiver Jackson Meeks was likely headed to Syracuse with his head coach, but his decision was cemented with a social media message from McCord.

“I guess Syracuse is the move,” McCord told him.

He drove to class with fellow transfer Devin Grant in an effort to connect. He took time to talk to everyone on the roster. When team leader Justin Barron looked through which players were recognized during the preseason, the absence that offended him the most was a player he’d met only months earlier.

“It’s Kyle (f—ing) McCord, dude,” Barron said. “What are you doing?”

When Syracuse was recruiting right tackle Savion Washington, defensive ends coach Nick Williams told McCord how much the coaching staff wanted him. Williams suggested the quarterback follow the lineman on Instagram.

McCord handed over his phone and Williams suggested liking a few photos. Then the coach went back through years of Washington’s social media posts, firing off a flurry of red hearts.

Soon after Washington signed, McCord let the offensive lineman in on a secret. They shared a laugh.

“I told him I’m not really that weird,” McCord said.

Even McCord’s time at Ohio State has helped him fit in at Syracuse, a program that isn’t known for being the top choice of elite recruits and where most players arrive with something to prove rather than on a pedestal.

“In a good way, he’s not what he looks like,” said Clark, who has known McCord since playing with him in middle school.

“Some people might think he stays to himself, doesn’t interact too much and is super serious all the time. He’s a completely different guy. He knows how to be with anybody. He can be in any group he wants to be in.

“A lot of people don’t have that switch. And a lot of people will never get it.”

It comes back together

Infante, who coached McCord in high school, has a favorite story from McCord’s first season as a starter at St. Joseph’s, one he thinks sums up the attitude of the quarterback.

In that year’s state playoffs, St. Joseph’s faced Pine-Richland, an opponent that had beaten McCord’s team in the state finals the previous year and snapped a 27-game winning streak.

Blessed with a combination of McCord and Harrison Jr., the St. Joseph’s staff tagged every run play with an option to throw the ball short if the box was stacked. Just a sophomore, McCord was already trusted to make the right choices for his team, even in pressure moments and terrible weather.

Revenge had been the theme of the season. Playing in the middle of a freezing rain, McCord threw for 305 yards. His team rolled.

Before the second quarter was over, St. Joseph’s lead was big enough that Infante wanted to play conservatively. Infante removed McCord’s option to throw at will.

Or at least he tried.

McCord pretended he didn’t hear the message. His teammates followed the quarterback’s lead, instructions from the coaching staff be damned. McCord continued to make pitch-and-catch throws to Harrison until the coach made his orders crystal clear during halftime.

It was an example, Infante said, of how much McCord simply loves to play and his ability to get a team to follow his lead, traits that have benefited him so much this season.

Syracuse’s coaching staff has displayed the same belief, relying on McCord to read defenses and take yardage with pitch-and-catch throws. He has regularly identified the best matchup from an array of receiving options and used the better ones to pick opponents apart.

He’s been given so much input in gameplans that, during a recent game, Brown said he asked the team’s offensive coaches why they ran a specific play.

The answer: Kyle liked it.

“Go back to that story,” Infante said. “That’s a kid having fun. That’s a kid who, regardless of what his coach is going to say to him when he gets to the sideline, he says, ‘I’m going to throw the ball and have fun.’ ”

McCord now owns the Syracuse record for completions in a single season. Barring a disastrous finish, he will end up with records for touchdown passes and passing yards, too.

He has talked often about how playing at Syracuse has allowed him to “play free.”

Against Georgia Tech, McCord was caught on cameras hyping up his teammates by calling the Yellow Jackets, “sorry” along with an expletive.

“The cameraman probably deserves a raise,” McCord quipped.

Following the team’s road win over North Carolina State, McCord’s teammates captured him on video, rapping along to a song by Lud Foe, wielding an imaginary machine gun and firing out lyrics fitting for his redemptive season: “50 shots out this AK, you diss on my name, you get smoked on the same day.”

McCord said he was introduced to the song by Diggs one morning when they were high schoolers headed toward a critical football camp. Diggs thought McCord needed a little help waking up.

“When I got here that was the song he’d always play,” McCord said. “I told him that’s my theme song from now on.”

The video cuts out as McCord is about to exit the locker room and enter a post-game press conference.

He goes from wielding an imaginary machine gun in the locker room to putting on a serious face, from being one of the guys to an extension of the coaching staff, a two-second example of everything he’s meant to Syracuse this season and everything he’s worked his life for.

“Sometimes,” McCord said he’s learned, “everything has to fall apart for it to come back together.”

Contact Chris Carlson anytime: Email | Twitter | 315-382-7932

Fans can stream Syracuse football all season on fuboTV, and get cheap tickets to see the Orange from SeatGeek. Fanatics has a full collection of Syracuse Orange gear to shop online