Ryan Day and Ohio State entered the 2024 season with a new starting quarterback. Kyle McCord, the starter for all 12 regular season games in 2023, ultimately opted for the transfer portal shortly after the end of the regular season with Day unwilling to commit to a starter entering bowl practices.

Ultimately, McCord ended up landing at Syracuse, where he has thrived after two games as the starting QB for the Orange. New Syracuse head coach Fran Brown was so ecstatic he mentioned sending a bottle of champagne to Day to say thanks.

Through 2 weeks of the season, McCord is tied for the national for passing touchdowns and has been efficient throughout. During Tuesday’s weekly press conference, Day was asked about his feelings on McCord’s early success at Syracuse, and the head coach claims he’s happy for his former QB.

“He’s off to a great start. I’ve only seen a few highlights, looks like he’s doing a great job,” Day said.

“Looks like the first couple of games he got a great rhythm and a great win this past weekend. Happy to see him doing well so far this season. You’re happy when guys go on and do well, even though you want to retain as many guys as you can. That’s our whole culture. But that’s just the way of the world. Happy to see Kyle do well. He won some great games here and poured a lot of effort into the program… We follow those guys and want to support him.”

McCord was far from perfect, but he played well for the Buckeyes in his first season starting as the Ohio State QB. He finished the 2023 season with 3,1760 passing yards with 24 touchdowns and 6 interceptions, but McCord ultimately struggled in the biggest game of the year against Michigan.

The former Buckeye has 735 passing yards, 8 touchdowns and 1 interception after 2 games. He helped propel Syracuse to an upset win over Georgia Tech on Saturday.