Syracuse, N.Y. — In his first game as Syracuse quarterback, Kyle McCord fell a holding penalty short of one of the 10 biggest passing days in Orange football history.
McCord dazzled in his Syracuse debut completing 27 of 39 passes for 354 yards and four touchdowns. His only
interception was an arm-punt, a deep pass on a 3rd-and-long that pinned Ohio deep in its territory.
The quarterback won 11 games as the starting quarterback at Ohio State last year and put up gaudy numbers along the way, but McCord seemingly fell out of favor with the Buckeyes and head coach Ryan Day after OSU failed to beat rival Michigan.
The quarterback, as they usually do, became a lightning rod for the Ohio State loss.
After Saturday’s performance, Syracuse coach Fran Brown said the Orange are thankful for the way it worked out.
“Kyle’s a good football player,” Brown said. “I should send Ryan Day a bottle of champagne for allowing us to get him. It’s pretty cool.”
McCord completed passes to eight different receivers, serving as the distributor to what appears to be a deep stable of quality skill players.
Syracuse’s all-time record for passing yards in a single game is 482 yards, a mark set by Ryan Nassib against Northwestern in 2012. Nassib also holds the No. 10 spot on the list, with 382 against Missouri.
McCord would have cracked the list in his Syracuse debut if a 44-yard completion to Oronde Gadsden in the fourth quarter hadn’t been called back due to offensive holding, drawing a chorus of boos from the crowd in the JMA Wireless Dome.
Two veteran Syracuse players returning from injury were McCord’s most frequent targets, and the ones he turned to in key moments, like two-minute drives and critical third-down plays. He completed 7 passes for 108 yards to Oronde Gadsden II and 6 passes for 78 yards to Trebor Peña.
