The first four games of his Syracuse football career haven't been perfect, but senior quarterback Kyle McCord sure has proven impressive thus far in his tenure on the Hill.
The 6-foot-3, 220-pound McCord, a four-star transfer from Ohio State who hails from Mount Laurel, N.J., has thrown for two interceptions in each of the Orange's last two encounters, so he'll want to clean that up as the 'Cuse (3-1) prepares to face No. 25 UNLV (4-0) in Las Vegas on Friday night.
For context, Syracuse football also has a ton of games left on its docket in the 2024 regular season, so I don't want to get ahead of myself. At the same time, what we're seeing out of McCord early on in his 'Cuse career is historic, if I can be frank. I hope his strong start to this term continues.
He has deservingly garnered some consideration from national pundits as it relates to this season's Heisman Trophy, and McCord also seems to have some buzz for the 2025 NFL Draft, per several recent media reports. I'm excited for him.
But to reiterate, the Orange plays a tough foe this Friday evening, and the 'Cuse will be on the road for all its games this month. Let's see how things transpire in the coming weeks for McCord and his teammates.
Syracuse football senior quarterback Kyle McCord is on a roll this season.
Through the Orange's first four games, McCord is completing 64.4 percent of his passes for 1,459 yards with 14 touchdowns against just five interceptions. He leads the Atlantic Coast Conference in passing yards per game.
On a national scale, per the NCAA's Web site, McCord is No. 9 in total passing yards, and many of the signal-callers ahead of him and directly behind him have played in one more game in 2024. He's No. 1 nationally in passing yards per contest, tied for No. 4 in touchdowns through the air, and No. 1 in completions per encounter (although I'd argue that McCord is throwing too many passes).
This stat is impressive: so far in 2024, McCord has thrown for at least 339 yards in every Syracuse football game. Per SU Athletics, he's the only player in program history to throw for 300-plus yards in four straight contests, and he did this in the first four games of his Orange career no less.
His 14 passing touchdowns, already, is in the top 15 in a single season in the history of Syracuse football. A recent cuse.com press release says that with two more touchdown passes, McCord will enter the top 15 on the program's career passing touchdowns list. Career.
SU Athletics says that he's "on pace to shatter the program's single-season record of 3,749 yards." I'm not saying that McCord is going to keep up his current pace, but if he did, he's eyeing between 4,300 and 4,400 (#OnBrand) passing yards in 2024. I also think that he will end up breaking the program record for most passing touchdowns in a single campaign, which is currently 26 scores.
Without question, the most important thing to me and every other fan out there is that the Orange triumph in a lot of games this season. Along with those wins, it would be glorious to witness Kyle McCord set various Syracuse football program marks.