You are wrong. Right from the horse's mouth: It was the coaches (not just Brown), NIL and he does not like stiff competition- he saw Syracuse as the easiest route to winning because of Syracuse's pillow soft schedule. You can debate this all you want, but this is straight from McCord himself.
"McCord said his decision to transfer to Syracuse was
driven by his relationship with the Orange’s new coaching staff, as he has longstanding relationships with Syracuse head coach Fran Brown, offensive coordinator Jeff Nixon and quarterbacks coach Nunzio Campanile."
“Coach Fran Brown, I’ve known him since I was in middle school,” McCord said. “I played football in South Jersey, and he’s a South Jersey guy. So he was at Temple, so he was always local, and he told me when I was in like 7th grade, I think he was like, ‘You’re gonna be special, man. Wherever I am, I want to be your coach.’
“And then Coach Nixon, who’s the offensive coordinator, he was in Philly with the Eagles when I was growing up, and I played youth football with his son. I was the quarterback, his son was the running back. So I’ve known Coach Nixon since I was 5 or 6 years old. And he recruited me when he was at Baylor, and obviously it didn’t work out, I went to Ohio State.
“And then the quarterback coach, Coach Nunzio Campanile, who was the head coach at Bergen Catholic up in North Jersey, wanted me to come up. He was on me in like 7th and 8th grade saying you could come up and go to school up there and he wanted me bad, but obviously I stayed in Philly. So kind of the three coaches that I’ll be working with there, I’ve known them for five, six, seven years and I’ve known Coach Nixon pretty much my whole entire life.”
That said,
McCord acknowledged that NIL was part of the recruiting process once he entered the portal.
“Schools know they have X amount of money and they have to distribute it accordingly. Each guy feels like they have a certain value and they set themselves at that value and I think a lot of it is weighing the pros and cons,” McCord said. “But I mean, it’s crazy. I talked to some of my guys from Ohio State, and hearing the numbers they’re getting from schools. And they’re trying to compare and ‘OK, I know I can get on the field here, but the money’s not as good as it is here.’ I think it’s nuts with NIL and the way things are right now, it’s free agency.”
Asked if Syracuse’s
favorable 2024 schedule played a part in his decision, McCord said he felt like he would have an opportunity to win by transferring there.
“Yeah, I mean, they said, with the guys that they’re gonna bring in, some of the guys they’ve got coming back, we’re gonna be able to make a serious run at it. And their recruiting pitch was, ‘Listen, we’re a quarterback away from being a serious contender in the ACC this year,’” McCord said. “And
I looked at the schedule, and I saw it and I think it’s true. I think there’s definitely an opportunity for us to go out there and win some games.”
In an interview with “The QB Room,” Kyle McCord said “Ohio State had to make a business decision that they felt like was best for them, and I had to do the same thing.”
www.elevenwarriors.com