Kyle McCord had some time to ease into his role as the starting quarterback at Ohio State before his first big game. He didn’t have that luxury in high school.
After becoming the starter as a sophomore at Philadelphia’s St. Joseph’s Prep, McCord took his team to Rutgers to face New Jersey’s St. Peter’s Prep in the opener. He found himself in a similar situation to last weekend’s top-10 matchup against Notre Dame: the ball in his hands with a chance to put his team in front on a big stage against a marquee opponent.
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Down 14 points, offensive coordinator Tim Roken told him the plan was to score, get a stop and score a touchdown before going for two and the lead. At 15 years old, McCord simply said, “Sounds good.”
Everything went according to plan. McCord marched the Hawks down the field for two touchdowns and started jogging off the field for the extra point before the coaching staff told him to stay on. He got the play in and saw a linebacker sprint unblocked into his face. The call was for a running back slip pass, and McCord made the throw between the blitzing linebacker’s arms.
The victory kickstarted a state championship season. It also launched McCord on a path to the national spotlight.
“In that moment I kind of realized I can do this,” McCord said. “I think that was my confirmation early in my football career that I was ready for it.”
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Ohio State-Notre Dame film study: McCord's clutch throws and more standouts
McCord’s high school career took off after that. He went on to total 6,887 yards and 88 touchdowns and sign with Ohio State as a five-star recruit in the Class of 2021.
He’s now a junior first-year starter at Ohio State, and the collegiate chapter of McCord’s career has barely started. Still, a month into the season, we’ve seen the same demeanor that helped him lead St. Joe’s Prep to numerous big moments.
That doesn’t just disappear. It’s ingrained in McCord, and it’s something the country got a look at against Notre Dame.
“He just settles in,” said Roken, who became the head coach at St. Joe’s Prep in 2019. “He blocks everything out to not feel any pressure and be able to stay focused in those high-pressure moments and not get rattled and just run the offense.”
Derek McCord isn’t sure why his son is the way he is now.
A former quarterback at Rutgers, Derek says he was an emotional player. It wasn’t uncommon for him to be up one play and down the next.
“When I was in college, if I threw a pick or had a bad practice I would stew on it,” Derek said. “He learned at a young age, ‘On to the next play — that’s behind me.’”
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Kyle’s mother, Stacy, is the anxious one of the family. She gets nervous before games, even if her son doesn’t.
That calm demeanor has always been inside Kyle, even when his father was coaching him.
“He saw that’s what it takes to be a great quarterback,” Derek said. “You can’t be on a roller coaster, up and down.”
Derek coached him for most of his young career until high school. And he was hard on Kyle. In fact, other parents thought he was too tough sometimes.
“Parents were questioning how hard I was on him,” Derek said, “but I knew that if he wanted to play football at a high Division I level, he would have to learn how to take the heat and just have it roll off his back and move on to the next play.”
Despite Derek coaching his son hard, he made sure that they never got in the car upset. All the coaching ended on the field.
It helped build a player in McCord who isn’t fazed by much, an attitude that was on full display in high school.
In his second start as a sophomore, McCord led St. Joe’s Prep to another comeback win against Our Lady of Good Counsel, capped by an impressive two-minute drive.
It’s something he’s done right away in college. McCord has led two-minute drills for points in three of his four games, including twice against Notre Dame — once for a field goal in the first half and again for the winning touchdown with one second left.
That’s one of the three things quarterbacks are judged on, Ohio State coach Ryan Day said. It’s about third-down conversions, red zone percentage and two-minute drills.
McCord has been terrific in two of the three. He’s completed 17 of 27 passes for 306 yards and one touchdown on third down. He hasn’t had as many opportunities in the red zone, completing just 5 of 15 passes for 60 yards and two touchdowns, an area where there’s room to grow.
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His comfort level in high-pressure situations has kept his teammates calm as well.
“If the offense is shaky or in a tough spot, everybody can look at Kyle and he’s the most calm person on the field,” receiver Emeka Egbuka said.
Donovan Jackson is one of the leaders of Ohio State’s offense. The starting left guard and a potential first-round pick, he knows a strong work ethic when he sees one. On a few occasions, he’s come back to the football facility to find McCord watching film by himself.
“He’s always the first one in and last to leave,” Jackson said. “I always tell him to go home, but he always keeps flipping through film like he didn’t hear me.”
That’s something that doesn’t come as a surprise to Derek McCord. Since he was a child, Kyle has been willing to sacrifice things to put more work in. He’s done so to watch more film or throw with his dad. He’s spent extra time working with his personal quarterback trainer, former NFL star Phil Simms, and throwing with his standout St. Joe’s Prep and Ohio State teammate, wide receiver Marvin Harrison Jr., on vacant fields in Philadelphia.
Derek wasn’t like that in college. A talented quarterback in his own right, he never committed himself to film study like his son does. He thinks if he did, his career might’ve been different and continued to the next level. It’s why he’s proud that his son is committed to that part of the game.
“For him it’s school, football and hanging out with some teammates or his girlfriend,” Derek said. “That’s what he’s about.”
Being the quarterback at Ohio State comes with high expectations. The last three starters have been first-round draft picks. McCord’s predecessor, C.J. Stroud, was a two-time Heisman finalist. McCord’s preparation is one of the reasons that the spotlight doesn’t bother him.
So is the fact that St. Joe’s Prep was a top-20 program nationally in McCord’s sophomore year and has been the preeminent powerhouse in Pennsylvania. The pressure of the position, big games, big crowds — none of it fazed him as he approached each game the same way. He’s never over-prepared for big games or under-prepared for games they were expected to win big in.
“The work he puts in allows him to feel comfortable in those moments because he’s prepared,” said St. Joe’s Prep offensive coordinator Tom Sugden. “That’s one thing nobody should be worried about, is if he’ll be ready for the moment.”
Every Kyle McCord pass attempt during the Notre Dame game. pic.twitter.com/RvFo5laLSg
— NBC Sports (@NBCSports) September 26, 2023
It’s why when the game is on the line, McCord looks so cool in the pocket. He referred to the third-and-19 throw to Egbuka that set up the 1-yard game-winning touchdown run against the Irish as “playing backyard football.” When asked how he led Ohio State on a 65-yard drive to win the game in 1 minute and 25 seconds, his answer was simple for a drive that was anything but.
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“At that point it’s reverting back to our training and it’s my job to get the ball to our playmakers,” McCord said.
He converted a third-and-10, a fourth-and-7 and third-and-19. And when Chip Trayanum got across the goal line, McCord took his helmet off screaming and ran to the sideline.
Much like his first start as a sophomore in high school, that drive was McCord’s “I’m here” moment.
“For his first top-10 game to be put in that situation to come through that says a lot about his future,” Day said.
(Top photo: Robin Alam / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)