Syracuse Football: Top national analyst predicts ‘Cuse will land 4-star Ohio State QB transfer Kyle McCord

Ohio State transfer Kyle McCord, one of the top quarterbacks across the country in the transfer portal, is one of nearly 20 prospects on the Hill this weekend taking official visits to Syracuse football.

The 6-foot-3, 215-pound McCord, a junior with the Big Ten Conference’s Buckeyes who said on December 4 that he was entering the portal, is rated as a four-star, top-10 quarterback in national transfer rankings from 247Sports.

When I wrote this column on early Saturday morning, I’d yet to see any analyst predictions for McCord between the 247Sports Web site, Rivals.com and the On3 Web site.

However, one of the top national recruiting analysts in the business, Mike Farrell, published an article on Friday where he forecasts that McCord will ultimately pledge to the Orange.

We’ll have to see how McCord’s recruiting process pans out, but this is an encouraging sign from Farrell.

Syracuse football is hosting four-star Ohio State quarterback transfer Kyle McCord on an official visit.

Farrell has been a recruiting analyst for more than 25 years, and he was the national recruiting director at Rivals.com for more than 20 years.

In a story on MikeFarrellSports.com, Farrell discussed a couple of topics in a “fact or fiction” manner. One topic was, “McCord will land at Syracuse,” and Farrell called that a “FACT.”

Farrell wrote in part that Syracuse football head coach “Fran Brown needs a guy to build around, and McCord can head back to the Northeast and be the starter at a program with much fewer expectations.”

Earlier this week, McCord had taken a visit to fellow Big Ten school Nebraska. There was chatter on social media that he may commit to the Cornhuskers.

That didn’t transpire, and several reports then came out stating that McCord was going to look at other schools. To that end, a couple of national observers noted that the Orange could prove a possible landing spot for McCord.

In national transfer rankings, at the time of this writing, Rivals.com had him at No. 15 overall, the industry-generated On3 Industry Ranking placed him at No. 24 nationwide, and 247Sports rated McCord at No. 39 nationally and No. 10 at quarterback.

As a junior at Ohio State, McCord completed nearly 66 percent of his passes for 3,170 yards and 24 touchdowns, against just six interceptions.

McCord, who attended the St. Joseph’s Preparatory School in Philadelphia and is from Mount Laurel, N.J., received a scholarship offer from the ‘Cuse in May of 2018.

The Philadelphia native was a five-star, top-30 overall player in the 2021 class, per the industry-generated 247Sports Composite.