J.J. McCarthy, Kyle McCord will answer an important question for Ryan Day in the Ohio State vs. Michigan game

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Ryan Day made a decision not long after he became Ohio State’s head coach. Four years later, we are about to see if it paid off.

During his first spring on the job, Day quickly got to work building a 2021 recruiting class that would eventually finish second nationally. It has since become the backbone of a program trying to turn around its misfortunes in its rivalry with Michigan. That journey started with getting Jack Sawyer as a five-star recruit living 15 minutes up the street.

But the first real decision Day ever made was at his position of expertise.

The Buckeyes have never been a program to pin themselves in a corner when it comes to recruiting quarterbacks, and that has been even more emphasized under Day. Typically they begin their search for one by evaluating multiple options, trying to find not only guys who are talented enough to compete to one day be the starter, but also have the makeup Day is looking for. Often there’s more than one person who fits those classifications.

“It’s not just one thing, there’s a lot that you look at,” Day said. “Leadership, competitiveness, toughness, there’s so many things. ...Then you try to compare the best you can. But there’s not one thing other than competitiveness, that’s for sure high on the list.”

The 2021 class had various players who fit those qualifications. It featured 13 quarterbacks who were ranked among the nation’s top 90 players, and three years later many have earned starting jobs. The best of that group, Caleb Williams, already has a Heisman Trophy.

OSU zeroed in on Drake Maye, J.J. McCarthy and Kyle McCord as guys who got offers in the spring of 2019.

As the story goes, Ohio State eventually picked McCord as the second member of its 2021 class. Doing so created a villain in McCarthy, who vowed to “kill them” one day before picking Michigan a month later. It was a frustration born out of the thought that he was swindled out of a chance to play for a team he once adored.

“I grew up first being an Ohio State fan. I won’t lie, I did,” McCarthy said. “But God had different plans for me and showed me the way. I’m very blessed and appreciative to be here, that’s for damn sure.”

An angry McCarthy has since gotten his chance for retribution. He’s 2-0 against the Buckeyes with a chance to make it 3-0 with what might be his last chance to play in The Game at home. He has in many ways become the perfect quarterback for a Michigan program that has spent the last two years taking OSU’s spot at the top of the Big Ten, and helping Jim Harbaugh rewrite the narrative of his time in Ann Arbor.

While he was doing that, McCord was watching on the sidelines, patiently waiting his turn as the guy Day chose first.

“You saw his productive play on the field,” Day said about why he chose McCord. “You saw his size, his arm strength, intelligence and just had a good way of leadership with the guys in his class. He was the first one to jump on board then brought a lot of guys with him.”

McCarthy’s displeasure with Ohio State’s choice back then was well-documented. But it didn’t have an impact on how he viewed McCord or vice versa. Really the only reason this is even a big deal is because someone decided to give McCarthy a platform to discuss it. McCord’s side of the story has much less fireworks. He didn’t even know the story behind McCarthy’s frustrations until the decisions had long been made.

But now it’s this thing hanging over his head that isn’t really a thing. Mainly because of how different their paths have been ever since.

“Once we committed to our schools we knew what it was gonna be,” McCord said. “We knew the rivalry that both of those schools had.”

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Outside of this rivalry and connection made possible by Day picking one over the other, the two actually have a relationship. They spent a decent amount of time with each other as high schoolers, even with one growing up in Illinois and the other in New Jersey. But now the two are at the center of one of the many things at stake on Saturday.

They get to prove whether or not Day made the right decision four years ago.

“Every day you have an opportunity to prove people right and prove people wrong,” McCord said. “That’s not in the front of my mind. The biggest thing for me is winning this game by any means necessary.”

Day’s decision won’t be judged simply by saying one quarterback outplayed the other. That would require the two to be playing in the exact same system with identical responsibilities and expectations, which isn’t the case. Michigan doesn’t ask the same things of its quarterback as Ohio State does, nor is the standard the same. The Wolverines rely on the run game so heavily that it can close out a 24-15 win over Penn State with 32 straight runs while McCarthy only throws eight passes. There are times when McCord might throw that many passes on one drive.

Day went with the quarterback he felt best fit what he wanted to do offensively with the Buckeyes. So did Harbaugh. As a result, The Game features two former five-star recruits for just the second time . The other was in 2019 with Justin Fields and Shea Patterson as two SEC transfers.

Deciding the better quarterback will be determined by which player best maximizes their offense in a way that leads to a win. Anything other than that only feeds into a narrative that both agree died the moment their high school careers ended.

“Not anymore to be honest,” McCord said of recruiting comparisons to McCarthy. “That was a little bit of a story when we were both being recruited. Once we both stepped on campus, those recruiting stories fade out. The product you put on the field matters most.”

Day’s reputation as a quarterback developer is in no way in jeopardy based on what happens this weekend. His last three starters were first-round draft picks and Heisman Trophy finalists. The latest of those starters, C.J. Stroud, is currently putting together one of the best rookie seasons from a quarterback that the NFL has ever seen. But none of those investments have had a longer shelf life than the one he’s about to cash in on Saturday.

One of the first things Day did as head coach was make a choice between two five-star quarterbacks. A choice that one of those players went out of his way to make sure everyone knew he didn’t agree with.

There was a time when McCarthy wanted the world to know that the Buckeyes should’ve picked him. Doing so has now tasked McCord with a burden he never asked for. He has to prove Day right on the ultimate stage, with every possible thing imaginable — both tangible and intangible — at stake.

Just add that to the list of things Ohio State is fighting for in The Game.

“At the end of the day on Saturday at noon we’re gonna put the ball down and it’s gonna be football,” McCord said. “Obviously there’s a lot of attention around The Game, rightfully so. But you just have to realize it’s just football and I think we’ve done a great job getting to this point being 11-0. Just continuing to prepare the way we have, continuing to practice the way we have and treating it as a football game.”