College Football

Kyle McCord and Marvin Harrison Jr.'s long, intertwined paths to The Game

Updated Nov. 23, 2023 5:57 p.m. ET

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Michael Cohen

College Football and College Basketball Writer

PHILADELPHIA — The drive from Philadelphia City Hall to St. Joseph's Preparatory School spans 1.6 miles and a socioeconomic chasm. It begins at the wonderfully ornate landmark complete with clock tower and sculpture of William Penn, who founded the Province of Pennsylvania, and ends in a place with lower-income housing, remodeled apartments and a side street where three men balance their chessboard atop a graffitied cement roadblock. One route between the two locales travels past the Eastern State Penitentiary.

A turn onto N. 18th Street shifts the perception for a second time as the cityscape gives way to a fenced-in courtyard dotted with trees and overlooked by the Church of the Gesu, a dual-towered brick building designed to showcase four beautiful stone columns. It's here where the two most important members of Ohio State's offense — quarterback Kyle McCord and wide receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. — got their start.

"You go through North Philly and you're like, ‘Where the heck am I?'" said Tim Roken, the head football coach at St. Joe's Prep. "And then this beautiful place pops up."

Beyond the security desk is a high-ceilinged foyer across which students dressed in suits and ties are scurrying on a Wednesday morning in early November. And to the left of this busy entryway sits a paneled trophy case with commemorative footballs immortalizing two of the best players in school history.

The McCord memento extols a five-star prospect who earned All-Catholic, All-State and All-American honors as he guided the Hawks to three consecutive state championships from 2018-20. He set Catholic League and Philadelphia city records for career passing yards (6,887) and career passing touchdowns (88) while living out a dream he shares with his father, Derek McCord, who played quarterback at Rutgers.

The Harrison homage exalts a famous namesake who earned All-Catholic, All-State and All-American honors as the primary target on the same three title-winning teams. He set Catholic League and Philadelphia city records for career receiving yards (2,625) and career receiving touchdowns (37) while shouldering the legacy of his own father, Marvin Harrison Sr., who is enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

"[McCord and Harrison] became very close, very quickly," said Ryne Morrison, the passing game coordinator at St. Joe's Prep. "They both realized how important each other was going to be to one another as they went through this thing."

St. Joe's Prep has footballs on display honoring two of its biggest stars. (Photo by Michael Cohen)

Their journeys collided amid the rigidity and structure of a high school known as much for its rigorous academics as the half-dozen NFL players it's produced over the last decade, and the teammates have been intertwined ever since. The son of a quarterback who catalyzed his son's development and the son of an all-time great wideout who did the same. The kid who threw a record number of touchdown passes and the kid who caught them while setting records of his own. The passer handpicked by Ohio State head coach Ryan Day and the playmaker who followed his teammate to Columbus. The starting quarterback for the undefeated Buckeyes and the best receiver in college football.

With a two-game losing streak to Michigan and a berth in the Big Ten Championship on the line, Saturday's game at Michigan Stadium (noon ET on FOX and the FOX Sports app) will be the most pressure-packed moment McCord and Harrison have experienced together, even greater than their days competing for state titles. And as has been the case since 2019, their fates remain inextricably linked.

Kyle McCord and Marvin Harrison Jr. at St. Joe's Prep. (Photo courtesy of McCord family)

"I don't think I truly realized how special it is to do that with a high school teammate and to come to a big-time school like this until, shoot, probably a few weeks ago, honestly," McCord told FOX Sports earlier this month. "I just took a step back and was like, wow, that is pretty crazy how everything just played itself out."

*** *** ***

Day after day, Stacy McCord heard the chatter coming from Kyle's room. Her youngest son would return from preschool to their house in Mount Laurel, New Jersey, and scurry upstairs to plot the latest matchup between the red team and blue team, bitter rivals to the very end.

Out came the felt mat with hash marks and yard lines that depicted a miniature football field. Out came the plastic players whose fates and roles would change each afternoon. And at the center of it all was Kyle, the mastermind for both sides, who aligned the pieces just so before narrating the action to come.

"He would talk out loud," Stacy said during a joint interview with her husband at the family's home. "And he was making up plays and he was running them downfield."

Young as Kyle might have been, his obsession with football was already well-established thanks to his father, whose playing days at Rutgers spanned from 1988-92. Derek McCord appeared in nine games for the Scarlet Knights under head coach Doug Graber and threw for 441 yards, three touchdowns and two interceptions while completing 47.6% of his passes. At 6-foot-4 and 218 pounds, he had excellent size for the position and an arm that he believes was slightly stronger than Kyle's. But while he worked hard on the physical side of the game to develop into a Division I passer, Derek admits he "wasn't a student of the game watching hours of film like Kyle," who grew to 6-foot-3, 215 pounds, and rarely leaves the Ohio State facility before 10 p.m.

Still, Derek McCord stoked the fascinations of Kyle and his oldest son, Cole, from the minute they were born. He taught Cole, who went on to play at Division III football at Ursinus College, to catch soft tosses by his first birthday. He played automatic quarterback for the hotly contested games in which the brothers, who are separated in age by two and a half years, would run routes against each other mano a mano.

Derek and Kyle McCord. (Photo courtesy of McCord family)

Kyle loved proving his toughness from a young age. He would explore the woods behind his family's house and return carrying snakes and lizards. When he saw his brother learn to ride a two-wheeled bicycle before the age of 6, Kyle demanded his parents remove the training wheels on his Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles bike so he could do the same — a few weeks after turning 3. Once the backyard football reached a point where Kyle and Cole were "full-on tackling each other, slamming each other down on the ground," as Stacy described it, the decision was made to sign them up for youth football in the name of self-preservation. At least they'd be wearing pads and learning the proper techniques for tackling if they played in the local league.

"They were football junkies," Derek said. 

By the time Kyle was 5, his father taught him the footwork for three- and five-step drops. When Kyle reached sixth grade, Derek began indoctrinating him on the differences between Cover 2 and Cover 3. Discussions about Xs and Os fascinated Kyle, who had been admitted to a gifted learning program in elementary school. He still competes against his mother in daily puzzles distributed by The New York Times. (Stacy says she's never beaten her son.) 

[Ryan Day, Ohio State and the high-stakes pressure to win The Game]

The family began traveling to college camps shortly after Kyle completed seventh grade. It was the summer of 2016, and Derek fudged his son's age to suggest he'd be entering high school that same year. At Michigan's camp, Kyle was sorted into a pod of lower-level players who were far from the purview of head coach Jim Harbaugh. But the following summer, when Kyle was legitimately a rising freshman, an assistant coach called to say that Harbaugh had personally requested to see the McCords again. This time, Kyle received one-on-one attention from Harbaugh, who told the family he planned to extend a scholarship offer.

"They sent me all these pictures because I stayed back at home," Stacy said. "Pictures of Kyle standing back to back with Jim Harbaugh."

As Kyle's recruitment picked up steam, the idea that Michigan could be his eventual home seemed like a legitimate possibility after multiple trips to Ann Arbor — so much so that Stacy had purchased a wealth of Wolverines gear. But contact with Michigan's coaching staff eventually faded as Harbaugh began prioritizing J.J. McCarthy, a source said, and Kyle turned his attention elsewhere by the fall of 2018. 

An unofficial visit to State College for Penn State's game against Ohio State later that year gave him a glimpse of the Buckeyes for the first time. He was impressed by what he saw from quarterback Dwayne Haskins and loved the system being run by Ryan Day, who was in his second and final season as offensive coordinator before replacing Urban Meyer as head coach.

As the weekend ended, Kyle told his father, "Gosh, I think I really like Ohio State." And soon enough, the interest would be mutual.

*** *** ***

Each summer, the layout for Big Ten Media Days in Indianapolis features a number of raised platforms atop which the conference's biggest stars conduct their interviews. Harrison certainly fit that bill earlier this year after catching 77 passes for 1,263 yards and 14 touchdowns in 2022. The rising junior's dais was consistently engulfed by reporters in late July.

Whether the event's organizers realized it, they'd assigned Harrison a seat directly beneath the part of Lucas Oil Stadium where the names of players, coaches and executives inducted into the Colts' Ring of Honor are visible on a marquee between the upper and lower levels. The honoree over Harrison Jr.'s right shoulder? Marvin Harrison 1996-08.

By the time Harrison Jr. was born on Aug. 11, 2002, his father was partway through a 13-year career that would eventually include three first-team All-Pro selections, five second-team All-Pro selections, eight Pro Bowl appearances, one Super Bowl ring and a coveted gold jacket. His 1,102 receptions still rank fifth in league history. His 14,580 receiving yards still rank ninth. His 128 receiving touchdowns are fifth behind Jerry Rice, Randy Moss, Terrell Owens and Cris Carter. His 143 receptions in 2002 remained an NFL single-season record until Michael Thomas broke it in 2019, depriving Harrison Jr. of something he'd always wanted to do: break that record himself.

"It's crazy," Harrison told FOX Sports when asked about seeing old photographs of him and his father after games, many of which were played at Lucas Oil Stadium. "It's kind of hard to put into words just knowing that that's my dad." (Attempts to reach Harrison Sr. for this story were unsuccessful.)

Measured at a shade below 6 feet and 181 pounds at the 1996 NFL scouting combine, Harrison Sr. relied on his speed, elite change-of-direction skills and precision route running to become one of the league's best receivers. He was revered by the Colts' coaching staff for his incredible practice habits and professionalism, which made him the ideal partner for quarterback Peyton Manning. The two of them spent "every dead minute" between drills working on routes to perfect their chemistry, according to receivers coach Jay Norvell. Harrison Sr. was so confident in his preparation that when offensive coordinator Tom Moore told him about an injury to an opposing cornerback, the wideout cut him off and said, "Tom, I don't care who's out there. It don't make no difference. I'm going to whip whoever is out there, so don't worry about it."

Away from the field, Harrison Sr. was regarded as equal parts polite and intensely private. He always treated the team's janitors, cooks, equipment staff and trainers with respect, Moore said, but was "pretty much a loner" outside of football. He gifted Norvell a watch after making his first Pro Bowl in 1999 and was known for having Tastykake desserts delivered from Philadelphia each week. 

Despite the obvious physical differences between Harrison Sr. and his son, who stands 6-foot-4 and weighs 205 pounds, the trickle-down effect when it comes to playing style and overall comportment is quite pronounced. The extreme work ethic, football intelligence and alpha dog mentality that served Harrison Sr. so well in Indianapolis were imprinted on Harrison Jr. from the moment the two began discussing the nuances of playing receiver when the latter was in ninth grade. 

The Colts and vice chairman Bill Polian (right) honored Marvin Harrison Sr. at halftime of a game on Nov. 27, 2011, with a 9-year-old Marvin Harrison Jr. in attendance. (Photo: Sam Riche/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)

Once criticized by his father for taking plays off during games, Harrison Jr. soon became the kind of player who used every spare moment to get better. After injuring his thumb during training camp at St. Joe's Prep, Harrison was spotted running routes along the sideline in rhythm with what was happening on the field, and his brother tossed him a tennis ball at the conclusion of each play. Roken still remembers the déjà vu moment when Harrison Jr., then a sophomore, ran a dig route and gave himself up the same way Harrison Sr. had avoided contact to protect his body.

"I was like, ‘Oh, wow,'" Roken said. "That's out of the book right there."

Outwardly, Harrison Jr. gives off a quiet and politeness that are easily mistaken for being shy. But in lighter moments he would weave his way through hallways at St. Joe's Prep like a receiver releasing off the line of scrimmage, dipping into Roken's office to greet recruiters with, "What's up, Coach?" and a friendly smile. He beamed with glee before the state title game in 2019 because he'd never played so much football in a single season, thanking the coaches and telling them how happy he felt to be there. 

His only memory of being around the Colts is a vague recollection of the cafeteria where players ate, though he knows from photographs that his father brought him around quite frequently. So perhaps it's no coincidence that the respect Harrison Sr. showed for team employees is mirrored years later by Harrison Jr.'s willingness to stay late after open practices at Ohio State and take pictures or sign autographs for fans. 

Consciously or subconsciously, it's how he was raised.

"At the time, I'm not thinking about anything but just being his son," Harrison said. "I'm not thinking about football, or chasing after his footsteps, or anything like that. I'm just being a happy little kid."

*** *** ***

McCord's earliest memory of Harrison was formed in the fall of 2017, a year before they became teammates for the first time. The play McCord describes took place in a game between St. Joe's Prep and La Salle College High School, with Harrison still enrolled at the latter. Both boys were freshmen.

The quarterback from La Salle threw an interception deep in the opponent's red zone, and a safety from St. Joe's Prep snared the pass for what seemed like a surefire pick-six. That's when Harrison channeled his inner DK Metcalf — the fiendishly athletic wide receiver for the Seattle Seahawks — and chased down the ball carrier to prevent a score.

"He was probably a good 10 to 15 yards behind our safety and tracked him down right in front of our bench," McCord said. "And I was like, ‘Jeez!' That was my first impression of him."

After a ninth-grade year in which he caught 20 passes for 254 yards and five touchdowns, Harrison transferred to St. Joe's Prep for his final three seasons, all of which would end with state championships. His parents believed the new school would better challenge Harrison academically and athletically, according to coach Tim Roken, and the opportunity to play with a burgeoning quarterback prospect like McCord certainly didn't hurt.

Though McCord grew up across the Delaware River in New Jersey, his father had been a volunteer coach at St. Joe's Prep around the time Kyle was born. Derek McCord was so impressed by what the program had to offer that he hoped at least one of his sons would blossom into the kind of student-athlete the school pursued. Years later, when representatives from St. Joe's Prep were scouting some of Cole's teammates in eighth grade, Derek McCord approached the coaches and encouraged them to keep an eye on Kyle.

"We stayed in touch from then on," Derek said. "And they recruited him through sixth, seventh and eighth grade. It was an easy decision for us and for him."

Enrollment at St. Joe's Prep is just under 1,000 boys, according to Roken, and tuition costs approximately $25,000 per year. Financial assistance is available in the form of need-based aid, though students are encouraged to search for academic scholarships from outside sources. Admission to the school is contingent upon the results of an entrance exam.

The combination of Ignatian service requirements, demanding academics and a varsity football team that operates with the seriousness of most college programs — school days for football players sometimes last from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. — can make for a difficult adjustment.

"This place is not for everybody," said Ryne Morrison, the team's passing game coordinator.

Those who make it, especially lately, have been privy to an elixir that has transformed St. Joe's Prep into the premier program in Pennsylvania, winning seven state titles in the last decade. The earliest ingredients were the core values outlined by former coach Gabe Infante and carried through to the present by Roken: brotherhood, sacrifice, discipline, gratitude and the idea of playing with trust and love. Then came a reconfigured offense that pulled from meetings with Mark Helfrich (then the offensive coordinator at Oregon) and Mike Norvell (then the co-offensive coordinator at Pittsburgh), in addition to a book by Gus Malzahn (then the head coach at Auburn). And eventually came the influx of high-level talent that included eventual pros John Reid, Jon Runyan, Olamide Zaccheaus and De'Andre Swift, with the last two now playing for the hometown Philadelphia Eagles. On average, Roken said, the team produced five or six Division I commits per year from 2013-16 and six to nine Division I commits per year from 2017 to now.

Coaches at St. Joe's Prep said few players have embodied what the program stands for better than McCord and Harrison, whose highlights on social media have become the subject of pre-practice fascination for the next generation of Hawks. They remember McCord's ability to connect with anybody on the team, regardless of background, and the way he selflessly tutored the backup quarterback after suffering an injury late in his junior year. They remember Harrison's penchant for studying film of a different NFL receiver seemingly every night — from Davante Adams to A.J. Green to Odell Beckham Jr. — and then showing the coaches what he learned at practice the next day. "Kind of letting him be the artist on a lot of that stuff," Morrison said, "while still maintaining the dignity of the pass concepts."

As a pair, McCord and Harrison routinely asked the coaches to rerun certain plays in practice until the rhythm and feel were perfected. And on the days when Roken declined their requests due to time constraints, his two best players simply stayed late to work those routes on their own.

Kyle McCord passed for 6,887 yards and 88 touchdowns at St. Joe's Prep. (Photo by John Jones/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

"People will look and just say, ‘Oh, they're great athletes,' or ‘Marvin's dad is who he is and he's gifted,' and things like that," Roken said. "But it takes away from the amount of work that those young men have had to put in to get to where they want to be. And there's a lot of that that goes unseen."

*** *** ***

In the summer of 2020, Derek and Stacy McCord traveled to Tennessee to watch Kyle compete in the Elite 11 Finals, a quarterback competition for the nation's premier high school prospects. At the time, McCord had risen to No. 52 overall in the 247Sports rankings after leading St. Joe's Prep to back-to-back state titles, and he'd been verbally committed to Ohio State for more than a year.

Among his competitors that week was J.J. McCarthy, a Michigan commit and fellow five-star prospect in the 2021 recruiting cycle. Over the course of the week, Derek and Stacy bonded with McCarthy's parents. They quickly learned there had been a time when McCarthy believed Ohio State to be his dream school — so much so that the family had purchased a pile of Buckeyes clothing. The two mothers hatched a plan.

"Megan [McCarthy] had a whole bunch of Ohio State gear that she wasn't going to be using," Stacy said. "And I had some Michigan stuff that we had accumulated. So we just did a little swap. I sent my stuff out, and she sent her stuff to me."

McCord's recruitment tipped in Ohio State's favor shortly after Ryan Day was named Urban Meyer's successor on Dec. 4, 2018. By the end of the month, Roken would be elevated to head coach at St. Joe's Prep following a decade as the team's offensive coordinator. Day was the first college coach to reach out after the promotion. "He called me [to say], ‘Kyle is the guy I want,'" Roken said.

It was a powerful statement considering the Buckeyes had previously extended scholarship offers to some of the highest-rated quarterbacks in the class: Caleb Williams (now at USC), Drake Maye (now at North Carolina) and McCarthy, among others. But Day preferred the steely sophomore from New Jersey who'd orchestrated several late-game comebacks en route to a state championship while throwing for 2,883 yards and 38 touchdowns in his first season as the Hawks' starter. He asked McCord to commit in April of the following year. 

"It was kind of a no-brainer for me," McCord said. "It was pretty sweet kind of being hand-chosen by a coach with such a good track record like Coach Day."

[Jim Harbaugh vs. Ryan Day: A rivalry that might never reach its potential]

Six months later, Harrison joined his teammate and close friend by committing to Ohio State. He and McCord wanted to create more memories together like the ones they cherished at St. Joe’s Prep, and so far they have: McCord has thrown for 2,899 yards and 22 touchdowns with just four interceptions; Harrison has caught 62 passes for 1,093 yards and 13 scores.

Their first signature moment came earlier this season, on Sept. 23, during a non-conference game at Notre Dame. McCord had finally been named the starter after two years as C.J. Stroud's backup, and Harrison was already regarded as one of the best receivers in college football. Ohio State trailed 14-10 when its offense took the field with 1:26 remaining.

McCord's parents, who travel to every game and have purchased a second home in Columbus, turned to each other in the stands and agreed their son was about to win the game. They'd seen Kyle flash his clutch gene from youth basketball games to football state championships and everywhere in between. Likewise, the coaches at St. Joe's Prep knew the stage was set for an ending they'd seen McCord and Harrison script so many times before. 

"I was grinning ear to ear," Roken said.

What happened next will be remembered by Buckeyes fans for years to come: a 15-play, 65-yard odyssey in which McCord rattled off completions that moved the chains on third-and-10; fourth and-7; and third-and-19. He also whistled a critical 19-yard completion to Harrison between defenders in zone coverage. When tailback Chip Trayanum plunged across the goal line with :01 remaining, the Buckeyes secured what amounted to a walk-off win.

The drive to beat Notre Dame was the biggest moment McCord and Harrison have shared since arriving at Ohio State three years ago. Saturday's showdown with Michigan will give them a chance to top it. 

"The way it all worked out with both of us coming to a school like this," McCord said, "I don't think you can draw it up much better than that."

Michael Cohen covers college football and basketball for FOX Sports with an emphasis on the Big Ten. Follow him on Twitter at @Michael_Cohen13.

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