The college football transfer portal window opened on Monday, and one of the sport’s biggest names hopped in immediately. Kyle McCord, the starting quarterback for Ohio State, announced he is exploring his options elsewhere.

McCord threw for 3,170 yards and 24 touchdowns during his first full season starting for the Buckeyes. He led coach Ryan Day’s squad to an 11-0 record before falling to rival Michigan in the regular-season finale in what was the de facto Big Ten East championship game. McCord entered last offseason in a battle with Devin Brown for the top spot on the quarterback depth chart after CJ Stroud moved on to the NFL.

McCord thew for 240 yards in Ohio State’s Week 4 win over No. 15 Notre Dame, and had another big game on Oct. 21 when he threw for 286 yards and a touchdown in the win over No. 10 Penn State.

McCord has 3,776 yards passing and 27 touchdowns during his three-year Ohio State career, which included a start as a true freshman against Akron in place of Stroud in which he threw for 319 yards and two touchdowns.

Currently ranked No. 5 in the transfer portal rankings according to 247Sports, McCord should be one of the hottest prospects in the market. Oklahoma’s Dillon Gabriel, Duke’s Riley Leonard, Washington State’s Cameron Ward, UCLA’s Dante Moore, Oregon State’s DJ Uiagalelei and Kansas State’s Will Howard are several of the star signal-callers who have jumped into the portal during the winter window so far.

This could be an indication of Day moving more toward utilizing mobile quarterbacks after Stroud and McCord couldn’t get the job done against the Wolverines. McCord rushed for -65 yards in 2023 and, while Stroud did get Ohio State into the College Football Playoff, he gained 108 yards on the ground — 34 of which were in the Peach Bowl national semifinal win over Georgia.

McCord was a four-star prospect was the No. 49 overall player from the Class of 2021 and played for St. Joseph’s Prep in Philadelphia.