Former Ohio State Buckeyes starting quarterback Kyle McCord made a somewhat surprising decision to enter the transfer portal early last month after starting all of Ohio State’s 12 regular season games and leading the Buckeyes to an 11-1 record. He’s since been pretty quiet about his reasons for his transfer, but in a recent interview, he made it pretty clear that he’s not happy with the Columbus media’s reporting on his decision.
This week, McCord appeared on ‘The QB Room’ podcast hosted by current NFL quarterback Kyle Allen and former NFL quarterback Jordan Palmer where he opened up a bit about his decision to transfer, and called out the Columbus media for what their reporting which he described as “just a bunch of BS.”
“I didn’t really say too much. After I left, I kind of put out my statement and kept the reasons close, kind of in my inner circle. And I’ve had news outlets hit me up. I got one – a news outlet from Columbus – that hit me up to do a story and I didn’t answer it. Hit my family up to do a story, they didn’t answer. Hit people up in my circle to do a story, nobody answered. And then the next day, you go online, and they have an article published of the five reasons I left,” McCord said on the podcast.
“And you read them and it’s just a bunch of BS. They’re just kind of pulling at strings at that point. The narrative, people read that and they think that’s true and so they start believing in it and posting it and it just kind of snowballs. And when you don’t really speak up about it, it is what it is.”
It’s not clear which specific report or outlet McCord is referring to, but the most prominent reporting on McCord’s transfer by a Columbus outlet came from Bill Rabinowitz of The Columbus Dispatch. In an article titled “Signs of discontent: Here is how and why QB Kyle McCord decided to leave Ohio State,” Rabinowitz reported that McCord was seeking a guaranteed starting position as well as more NIL money, but head coach Ryan Day declined to guarantee he’d be the starter next season and Ohio State “was not willing to facilitate” an increased NIL package.
While he seems to dispute this version of the story, McCord himself did not specify what he thought was “BS” about the reporting, nor did he really go into many details about why he decided to transfer from Ohio State, besides describing the move as a “business decision” from both parties.
“You guys know it just as well as I do, at the end of the day, the top level of college football and then especially onto the pros, it’s a business. At the end of the day, Ohio State had to make a business decision that they felt was best for them, and I had to do the same thing,” McCord said. “And unfortunately it just wasn’t meant to be for next year. But at the end of the day, I felt like I put together some solid games, had some good tape, so I was confident when I went in the portal, I would find a good home.”
Regardless of the reasoning behind his transfer, McCord will now play his final season of college football with the Syracuse Orange after leaving Ohio State. Oddly enough, McCord leaves Ohio State with the best record of any full-time starter in program history.
