Freshman Quarterback Kyle McCord Will Start vs. Akron

McCord will make his first career start tonight against the Akron Zips as C.J. Stroud rests his ailing shoulder.

BuckeyesNow has learned that Ohio State true freshman Kyle McCord will be the starting quarterback against the Akron Zips this evening. McCord will make his first appearance for Ohio State.

After enrolling early and moving to campus last winter, McCord has impressed the Buckeye coaching staff and made the decision to pick the next quarterback very difficult. McCord had a very good spring, continued to progress over the summer and came to camp ready to battle for the starting job. While head coach Ryan Day ultimately named C.J. Stroud the starter, McCord continued to prepare for his opportunity and he's going to make his first career start tonight.

Day announced earlier this week that Stroud would only play in an emergency situation in tonight's game vs. Akron. Stroud has been dealing with a nagging right shoulder injury that has clearly affected his play the last couple weeks, although he's gutted through the pain and posted some impressive numbers.

“Going into this game, we’ve asked C.J. to take these last couple of days off and rest that shoulder,” Day said Thursday afternoon during his weekly radio show on 97.1 The Fan. “Kyle and Jack have done a good job, and so the plan right now is to – we’ll see how today goes – but probably use C.J. in somewhat of an emergency capacity on Saturday and play some of those other guys.”

Game Preview: Ohio State Hosts Akron in Final Non-Conference Tune Up

"We knew going into the season we were going to need the whole room. We talked about that coming in, that this probably wasn’t going to just be one guy. We’re going to need everybody. We certainly know the story on that in 2014, with J.T. (Barrett), Cardale (Jones) and Braxton (Miller). Maybe this year is similar to that.”

McCord had a very impressive high school career at St. Joseph's Prep in Philadelphia. He was named the Pennsylvania Gatorade Player of the Year where he guided the Hawks to three consecutive state championships. McCord threw for 6,887 yards and 88 touchdowns as a high school QB and was widely considered among the top high school quarterbacks in the country.

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