Syracuse football coach Fran Brown details the relationships that helped bring Kyle McCord to SU

Syracuse, N.Y. -- Kyle McCord’s decision to go from incumbent at Ohio State to clear starting quarterback at Syracuse has provided excitement to the Orange fanbase, stability to the football program and confusion to some members (cough, Paul Finebaum, cough) of the national media.

The Buckeyes have repeatedly sent starting quarterbacks to the NFL in recent years. Syracuse’s best quarterbacks at that level in program history are Donovan McNabb and Tommy DeVito.

Ohio State surrounds its passers with the best weapons in college football. Fran Brown appears on his way to upgrading the Orange, but the offensive weaponry at Syracuse is not yet top-shelf.

The last time Syracuse dipped into the transfer portal for a quarterback it pulled out Garrett Shrader from Mississippi State. Shrader wound up being a great find, a quarterback with toughness beyond question, but he arrived with nothing resembling McCord’s bonafides as a passer.

McCord arrives on the heels of an 11-win season, one that saw him throw for 3,170 yards. Only one Syracuse quarterback has ever thrown for more yards in a single season. McCord brings instant stability, credibility and national recognition to a program that has languished near the bottom of the ACC and is building under a first-year coach.

“We felt as though he was the guy that we could get to help lead this program to where it could be a program and not just a team,” Brown said. “I don’t think there would be another quarterback in the country that would be able to come and do this for us.”

For those questioning why the move makes any sense for McCord, Brown ticked off a laundry list of relationships that made SU an appealing destination for the established signal-caller.

McCord grew up in Mount Laurel, New Jersey. Brown is from Camden, and his reputation as a recruiter throughout the state is excellent.

Brown said that he knew McCord as a youth player. He said that McCord has played on the same team as the son of future offensive coordinator Jeff Nixon. He said McCord is well-acquainted with the coaching reputation of his soon-to-be-position coach Nunzio Campanile.

All of that, Brown said, provides plenty of reason that Syracuse would be an attractive destination.

“I’ve known Kyle since he played Little League football so this isn’t just a fresh thing where it’s like, ‘Oh snap, let’s see if this could be a place,’ ” Brown said. “We’ve known each other. He’s played with our offensive coordinator’s son. Coach Nunzio (Campanile) is known to be a good quarterback coach. I’ve known Kyle’s father, his father and my wife worked in the same hospital when she was finishing up her clinicals, so this wasn’t a thing that was just to try it.”

While it’s unclear how much impact the decision of Ohio State coach Ryan Day not to guarantee McCord the starting job for the team’s bowl game or for next season played in his decision, Brown noted there was an element of not feeling appreciated that factored into McCord’s choice.

“Kyle wanted to come back home and wanted to come where he would be truly appreciated and it would be understood how good of a quarterback he is,” Brown said.

Brown noted finding a quarterback was one of his first priorities as a head coach, listing that along with hiring two strength and conditioning coaches and adding pass rushers through the transfer portal in Fadil Diggs and James Heard Jr.

He is pleased with how he has started to shape the roster over his first month on the job.

“We’ve got the pieces it takes to have a good football team,” Brown said during the team’s National Signing Day press conference. “I think we touched a little bit of everything that needed to be touched.”

Brown listed previous relationships when discussing a number of players that signed with the Orange on National Signing Day on Wednesday including four-star defensive end KingJoseph Edwards and hanging onto Jamie Tremble, the highest-ranked player in the class, who had committed to previous coach Dino Babers.

He said the idea of learning the tight end position under Oronde Gadsden II was appealing to Tremble, as was the presence of tight ends coach Mike Johnson, who has more than a decade of experience at the NFL level and has been a coordinator in college and the NFL.

“Jamie’s a freak show,” Brown said. “I watched Jamie when I was down at Georgia. We were interested in Jamie there. He is a freak athlete. He can do a lot. He’s going to be a tight end but he’s going to go out wide. We have to be able to use his athletic ability. You don’t find a lot of guys like that.”

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