Comparison is the thief of joy.

These are some of the QBs who have gotten off to hot September starts:
Florida State - Jordan Travis (6th Year QB)
Notre Dame - Sam Hartman (6th Year QB)
Washington - Michael Penix Jr. (6th Year QB)

Travis, Hartman, and Penix were all part of the 2018 recruiting class, the same class as Trevor Lawrence and Justin Fields.

These three players are already at their ceilings in September. The player who isn’t anywhere close to his ceiling is Kyle McCord.

McCord spent the entire fall camp splitting reps and just had his second true start against Notre Dame.

First year starters are always the players who show the most drastic improvement from start to finish in the season.

Take CJ Stroud in 2021 as an example. Stroud went from people calling for his benching and lamenting his poor accuracy after the Oregon loss, to no brainer Heisman finalist by year's end.

I am confident that McCord will experience a similar leap as time goes on. McCord flashed high end play when we needed it the most against a loaded Notre Dame secondary. Ryan Day is one of the best QB coaches in CFB, and McCord's consistency will only improve as time goes on.

Kyle McCord's game winning drive pic.twitter.com/oYRyTZNgHp
— CleBuckeye (@CleBuckeye23) September 30, 2023

Excited for McCord to take the next step in his maturation against Maryland on Saturday!