Syracuse football reportedly contacts Ohio State transfer, former 5-star QB

According to various media reports and social media posts, Syracuse football could – I repeat, could – emerge as a school to watch for Ohio State transfer Kyle McCord, a former five-star quarterback who held an offer from the Orange a few years back.

On December 4, McCord said via his X page that he was planning to enter the NCAA’s transfer portal. Big Ten Conference powerhouse Ohio State, by the way, is 11-1 overall so far in the 2023 season, No. 7 in the College Football Playoff rankings, and will face No. 9 Missouri on December 29 at the Cotton Bowl in Arlington, Texas.

The 6-foot-3, 215-pound McCord, a junior who is from Mount Laurel, N.J., has completed 65.8 percent of his passes in the current term for 3,170 yards and 24 touchdowns against just six interceptions.

Per his X page, McCord landed a scholarship offer from the ‘Cuse back in May of 2018. As a member of the 2021 class out of the St. Joseph’s Preparatory School in Philadelphia, he was rated as five stars, No. 28 nationwide, No. 6 at quarterback and No. 2 in Pennsylvania, according to the industry-generated 247Sports Composite.

Might Syracuse football make a run at former five-star quarterback Kyle McCord?

In a recent X post from On3, it was noted that the Orange had reached out to a former five-star quarterback. The corresponding article from top college football reporter Pete Nakos was a subscriber-exclusive piece, so I want to respect Pete’s work here.

However, numerous retweets of his article did connect the dots regarding Syracuse football reaching out to McCord.

Additionally, in recent days, FanSided staff writer John Buhler discussed some potentially enticing future landing spots for McCord, and Buhler noted Syracuse football in his story, which was encouraging to hear.

There are some important recruiting connections to mention among the new Orange coaching staff and McCord.

New Syracuse football head coach Fran Brown and new defensive coordinator Elijah Robinson are long-time friends who grew up together in Camden, N.J., which is about five miles away from downtown Philadelphia.

Camden is also roughly 14 miles away from McCord’s hometown of Mount Laurel. Additionally, in their collegiate coaching careers to date, both Brown and Robinson previously held positions at Temple, which is based in Philadelphia, where McCord went to prep school.

Brown also coached at Rutgers, which is in New Jersey. Robinson, meanwhile, attended Penn State and coached there. Penn State, located in State College, Pa., is about three hours from Philadelphia.

It remains to be seen how much, if any, mutual interest there might prove among McCord and the Syracuse football coaching staff, but I’ll monitor his recruitment moving forward. I assume that McCord will have some impressive suitors, but Brown and his staff have already shown just in recent days that they’re going full steam ahead on the recruiting trail.