Syracuse, N.Y. -- Former Syracuse men’s basketball coach Jim Boeheim was a special guest of the ACC Network on Monday, when the channel focused its daily coverage on Syracuse football.
Boeheim, who rarely missed attending football games during his 47 years coaching at Syracuse, offered up his assessment of this year’s Orange during his appearance. He offered praise for new quarterback Kyle McCord and coach Fran Brown, while working to keep expectations reasonable for a head coach in his first season.
“He’s lit up this community,” Boeheim said of Brown. “Since he came in the first day he’s engaged with everybody in the community. The problem with that is they’re so high now, they’re (talking about) a 10-win season. I try to tell people, ‘Let’s calm down a little bit. This league is still pretty good.’ Well, they’re not playing Florida State. They’re not playing Clemson. These other teams are pretty good. He’s got everyone on fire.”
While Boeheim tried to limit the expectations of a 10-win season, he said he felt Syracuse would surprise many nationally.
“They are excited,” Boeheim said. “Thats a big part of football. Get excited and want to play. I think they’re going to surprise some people. I’ll go out on that limb. I’m excited for this season.”
Perhaps the biggest reason for all the excitement is the addition of McCord, who was 11-1 as the starting quarterback at Ohio State last season.
McCord comes in with a quarterback pedigree rarely seen at Syracuse. A five-star prospect out of high school, McCord threw for 3,170 yards last season at Ohio State with 24 touchdowns and six interceptions.
Despite his production, Ohio State lost to eventual national champion Michigan and Ohio State coach Ryan Day was non-committal when asked if McCord would enter the coming season as the team’s starting quarterback. McCord responded by entering the transfer portal shortly after.
Ohio State, one of the sport’s bluebloods, has been spoiled by a recent stretch of NFL quarterbacks that include C.J. Stroud, Justin Fields and Dwayne Haskins.
In describing his departure from the school, McCord has said that Ohio State made a business decision and then so did he.
“He may not be good enough for Ohio State but he’s certainly good enough for us,” Boeheim said. “I’ve watched him practice. He can throw the football. They’ve brought in a bunch of guys that can play.”
Ohio State offensive coordinator Chip Kelly recently said that the Buckeyes’ quarterback competition remains open but the most likely scenario seems to be that OSU will head into the season with its own transfer at quarterback.
Will Howard, who played last season at Kansas State, seems to have the edge with the Buckeyes over returning backup Devin Brown. Howard recently drew praise from Kelly after he was clocked reaching 22.1 miles per hour in practice.
Howard passed for 2,643 yards, 24 touchdowns and 10 interceptions last year with the Wildcats.
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