Burrow, We’re Going To Score A Lot Of Points

[LSUDad]

Joe Burrow excited about LSU's new-look offense: 'We're going to score a lot of points'

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While Joe Brady may not be a household name in Louisiana yet, he certainly may be during the season.

Brady was hired as LSU’s new passing-game coordinator this off-season and working under OC Steve Ensminger. Brady’s up-tempo, run-pass option and no-huddle style is certainly gaining headlines heading into 2019.

Ed Orgeron loved the offense during spring practice, and it’s clear he loved the direction his unit was heading.

LSU QB Joe Burrow thinks the Tigers are going to put up some big numbers this season.

“I think we’re going to score a lot of points, and I don’t think a lot of people are used to LSU scoring 40, 50, 60 points a game,” Burrow told The Advocate while attending the Manning Passing Academy. “I think if we do what we need to do up until fall camp and continue our hard work in fall camp, we can be one of the best offenses in the country.”

That’s true; we’re not used to seeing LSU put up that many points per game. The Tigers have relied on just enough offense and killer defense in the past. However, with a defense that’s certainly going to be good, the offense could be the one unit that helps deliver Orgeron an SEC Championship.

LSU is never lacking in talent or development. Alabama obviously has given LSU trouble in the SEC West, but could the Tigers finally have the offense that helps them land in Atlanta?

LSU averaged 32 points (7th in SEC) per game in 2018. Only Alabama averaged more than 40 per game last year. Should LSU average north of 35, look out. This division could get really fun

[LSUDad]

In 2013 we had Odell Beckham Jr., Jarvis Landry and Kadron Boone, we averaged 35.8 ppg. I can see us North of that number. 

[LSUDad]

 

On 7/3/2019 at 9:21 AM, LSUDad said:

In 2013 we had Odell Beckham Jr., Jarvis Landry and Kadron Boone, we averaged 35.8 ppg. I can see us North of that number. 

A revisit. 

[dachsie]

https://twitter.com/LSUfootball/status/1197285994514526209?s=09

[Herb]

Awesome infographic on Burrow:

 

https://infogram.com/joe-burrow-record-watch-1hdw2jzwdmzd4l0

<div class="infogram-embed" data-id="bce3abc3-7139-40b2-b23d-921efe56f272" data-type="interactive" data-title="Joe Burrow record watch"></div><script>!function(e,i,n,s){var t="InfogramEmbeds",d=e.getElementsByTagName("script")[0];if(window[t]&&window[t].initialized)window[t].process&&window[t].process();else if(!e.getElementById(n)){var o=e.createElement("script");o.async=1,o.id=n,o.src="https://e.infogram.com/js/dist/embed-loader-min.js",d.parentNode.insertBefore(o,d)}}(document,0,"infogram-async");</script><div style="padding:8px 0;font-family:Arial!important;font-size:13px!important;line-height:15px!important;text-align:center;border-top:1px solid #dadada;margin:0 30px"><a href="https://infogram.com/bce3abc3-7139-40b2-b23d-921efe56f272" style="color:#989898!important;text-decoration:none!important;" target="_blank">Joe Burrow record watch</a><br><a href="https://infogram.com" style="color:#989898!important;text-decoration:none!important;" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Infogram</a></div>

 

[LSUDad]

Thanks Herb, nice info. I usually see Rohan Davey at the Bert Jones Golf Tournament for Cystic Fibrosis, he missed it this year. He held that record, at the pace we had been going, that record would have continued. O and Steve, helped with the Brady hire to end it. A picture from last year’s tournament. Alexander and Ro in the back. Alexander was there this year. 
 

 

Edited November 24, 2019 by LSUDad

[Herb]

Good times, Dad.  I'm jealous that you get to participate in that...one day I'll let the golf bug get me.

Burrow is on pace to set an NCAA season record for all-time accuracy...think about that.

[LSUDad]

13 minutes ago, Herb said:

Good times, Dad.  I'm jealous that you get to participate in that...one day I'll let the golf bug get me.

Burrow is on pace to set an NCAA season record for all-time accuracy...think about that.

If you ever want to make it Herb, let me know, you can just attend, don’t need to play golf. Cystic Fibrosis runs in Bert Jones family. 
They also have a tennis tournament for CF, I helped 3 days at CC of La, last weekend. 
Cystic Fibrosis and Folds of Honor are two that I help with, F of H, I’ve been asked to help with the Coordination, then CF, I was asked to help with a little more into the planning of their events. All worthy causes. 

But Herb, like I said, you have an open invite from me. Now, let’s keep enjoying this win and season. 
 

Im making a Gumbo and a Jambalaya later today. My granddaughter asked me if she could bring a friend with her to the game last night. They had a spread of catered food, Jambalaya and a Gumbo, not the best. I’m making some for us and for her family, so she knows what really good food tastes like. 

[LSUDad]

28 minutes ago, Herb said:

 

Burrow is on pace to set an NCAA season record for all-time accuracy...think about that.

When a QB is doing what he’s doing within an offense, there is a reason, he may be the first player taken in this years draft. He can run an NFL offense, he knows when to force it and when to lay it up, allowing the receiver to run under it, placement of the ball, too much good is in what he’s doing. 

[Nutriaitch]

i’ve been doing a TON of number crunching. 

hopefully Fish lets me go on a tangent on next podcast about this offense 

[LSUDad]

38 minutes ago, Nutriaitch said:

i’ve been doing a TON of number crunching. 

hopefully Fish lets me go on a tangent on next podcast about this offense 

Please do. 

[dachsie]

2 hours ago, Nutriaitch said:

i’ve been doing a TON of number crunching. 

hopefully Fish lets me go on a tangent on next podcast about this offense 

Put them here as well - it's easier to read it than listen to it

[Herb]

58 minutes ago, dachsie said:

Put them here as well - it's easier to read it than listen to it

You saying he talks funny?  Lol.

[Nutriaitch]

10 hours ago, dachsie said:

Put them here as well - it's easier to read it than listen to it

i'll make a topic on it after the podcast drops/

[LSUDad]

BREAKING BAD: Quarterback Joe Burrow Shatters Records, Expectations

LSU star quarterback Joe Burrow entered the season as a 200-to-1 longshot to win the Heisman.

 

 

He was projected to be a mid- to late-round NFL draft pick at best.

 

 

Eleven games and one meteoric rise later, he is considered by many to be the No. 1 pick and the next quarterback of the Cincinnati Bengals.

And he is a lock to win the Heisman.

In my memory, there has never been a college football season where there is so little drama surrounding the Heisman Trophy. Sure, Fox commentators will pump Ohio State defensive end Chase Young for the award, but that’s what they’re supposed to do considering they have a contract to show Big 10 games. As ridiculously good as Chase Young is, the truth of the matter is that if he does win, it will be one of the biggest travesties in college football history.

 

 

 

The award belongs to Joe Burrow. And it’s belonged to him for a long time. Even Sports Illustrated is hopping on the bandwagon this week.

 

 

Burrow has directed a total overhaul of an LSU offense that was simply bad. And they were bad for years. It had been stuck in the rut of an archaic, ground-and-pound philosophy that couldn’t even be energized by innovative offensive coordinator Matt Canada in 2017. Canada was fired after just one season, and after the Tigers showed some signs of improvement with Burrow under center and Steve Ensminger as offensive coordinator, head coach Ed Orgeron hired New Orleans Saints whiz-kid, 29-year-old Joe Brady, to assist Ensminger as passing game coordinator.

When asked this summer by skeptical reporters exactly how different LSU’s offense would be, Burrow looked like a kid with a secret but no way to hide it.

“Oh,” he said, eyebrows arching, mouth curling into a wry grin. “I mean, it’s going to be”–he paused. More mouth curling–”a lot different. I’m going to try not to tell you how different it’s going to be.”

It wasn’t that Burrow was bad last season, his first as LSU’s starting quarterback after transferring from Ohio State. He led the Tigers to a 10-3 record and a victory over undefeated and seventh-ranked Central Florida. He was a gritty competitor, often running for first downs with his legs rather than throwing for them with his arm. He was a good player, throwing for 2,894 yards and 23 touchdowns.

But he was nowhere near the All-American talent he has put on display this season.

A glimpse:

• 2018: 16 touchdowns, five interceptions, 57.8& completion rate in 13 games.
• 2019: 41 touchdowns, four interceptions, 78.9% completion rate in 11 games.

The numbers could run for days. Burrow is averaging 364 passing yards and 3.7 touchdowns per game. His 78.9% completion rate would rank him first all time in big-time NCAA football. At 4,014 passing yards on the season, he is only 261 away from shattering the all-time SEC mark. With 41 touchdowns passes, he needs only four to break the conference record.

And he still has four games to do it.

Tom Vander Ven, a Professor of Sociology whose research delves into criminology, and also Burrow’s fourth-grade basketball coach to boot, recognized early on that Burrow had the internal climate to perform on the big stage.

“Most of us, when it’s a high-intensity situation, an anxiety-producing situation, we run in the other direction,” Vander Ven said. “So that’s why law enforcement, emergency medical services personnel, those who are successful at the job, are unique people, because they run towards danger. Most of us run away from it, or it’s such a stressful situation that we don’t feel comfortable in that situation.

“I think Joe thrives on that.”

Burrow’s signature Heisman moment may have come over the course of an entire game when the Tigers ended an eight-year drought against the Alabama Crimson Tide with a 46-41 victory in Tuscaloosa. Time and time again, when the Tide would have all the momentum and 100,000 screaming fans behind them, when that “high-intensity situation” would see most quarterbacks fold under the pressure, Burrow would calmly lead the Tiger offense back down the field. Clutch throw after clutch throw, crucial third down pick-up after crucial third down pick-up, score after score, Burrow cemented his legacy that afternoon as an LSU legend and propelled him into a one-horse race for the Heisman.

“This is why I decided to transfer [from Ohio State],” he said after the game, with his arm around fellow star Clyde Edwards-Helaire. “This is why I decided to come down here and play with [Edwards-Helaire] and all those guys over there. These are the games you live for and you work so hard for.”

The 46 points Burrow and company hung on the Tide in Bryant-Denny Stadium was just the next example of how LSU is silencing the skeptics. The senior quarterback is breaking bad with LSU’s offense, taking it to the cusp of its first college football playoff appearance, rewriting SEC football record books, and is showing no signs of being derailed. Still, to the competitive but soft-spoken, tiny-town Ohio boy, what matters most is winning.

“That’s all that’s ever mattered to me: winning games,” Burrow said. “When my stats weren’t great last year, and we were winning games, I said the same thing. I’ll say the same thing this year.”

 

 

Burrow is usually a quiet guy, but the story goes that when Texas fans blew a cannon through Burrow’s No. 9 jersey on ESPN College Gameday in early September, the quarterback looked at a teammate and guaranteed a 400-yard passing night. Hours later, the Tigers walked out of Austin and the top-10 showdown with a statement victory, and Burrow had made good on his promise.

471 yards. Four touchdowns.

“If the ball’s in Joe’s hands at crunch time,” Vander Ven said, “you just know he’s going to get it done.”

Many athletes have had that said about them. But rarely is it as true as it is in this case. Joe Burrow is getting it done, and his fire and won’t-lose attitude may very well bring a fourth national championship to Baton Rouge.

A looming obstacle to that happening?

The second-ranked Ohio State Buckeyes, the program that said Burrow simply wasn’t good enough. And if that matchup occurs on January 13, you can bet with better than 200-to-1 odds that it won’t take a cannon-ball gimmick on national television to motivate him.

[Eq4bits]

So January 13th..... thats hubs & my 39th anniversary.....

[LSUDad]

Joe Burrow's Remarkable Rise Has Been Beyond Even His Wildest Dreams

Once overlooked and dismissed, LSU quarterback and Heisman Trophy frontrunner Joe Burrow has shockingly shaped the football landscape as he leads the No. 1 team toward the College Football Playoff.

ROSS DELLENGER

4 HOURS AGO

When he was a boy, he imagined a different storybook fairy tale.

Joe Burrow dreamed of suiting up for the college football team he had rooted for all his life, where his father and two older brothers had played. He grew up in The Plains, Ohio, became a star quarterback in high school and led his team to a state championship game appearance. In his dreams he would go on to lift the once-proud program that he revered—Nebraska—back to prominence. Maybe, when his imagination got carried away, even to a national championship. 

 

But Burrow’s dream was not meant to be. The Cornhuskers wouldn’t even give him a look. “They were questioning his arm strength and whatever,” says Joe’s brother Dan, a Huskers safety in the early 2000s. “All Joe ever wanted to do was play for Nebraska. It really, really hurt me.”

Burrow went to Ohio State instead, where he sat on the bench for three seasons. When he decided to transfer as a redshirt junior, Nebraska, mired in a dismal stretch, could have landed him again. The Cornhuskers passed. When asked about Burrow at the time, Nebraska coach Scott Frost said, “You think he’s better than what we got?”

And so, the fairy tale would forever remain unrealized. Instead, reality would exceed Burrow’s greatest fantasy.

On a warm November Saturday in Tuscaloosa, Ala., LSU starting quarterback Joe Burrow sat on his nose tackle’s burly right shoulder. His arms stretched toward the heavens as he stared into a sea of cameras and stuck out his tongue. Just moments after the Tigers’ 46–41 win over Alabama, here was the new face of the game: the cartoon-loving, tongue-wagging quarterback who, after being unwanted in Lincoln then unused in Columbus, was now a legend in Baton Rouge.

“It’s been the greatest story in college football,” says Kirk Herbstreit, a longtime ESPN analyst and former Ohio State quarterback who has known Burrow since his teenage years. Consider: The Nebraska legacy snubbed by the Cornhuskers has led LSU to a 11–0 start, the No. 1 ranking and an almost certain berth in the College Football Playoff. The preseason 200-to-1 shot for the Heisman (on Las Vegas sports book betting boards long enough to include him) is now the favorite to become the second Tiger to hoist the trophy, the first since halfback Billy Cannon 60 years ago. The senior who went unlisted on many draft boards last summer has piloted a revolutionary, record-breaking offenseso adroitly that he is on the short list to be the top quarterback selected next spring—maybe even the top overall player taken. One veteran NFL scout says Burrow is the most improved player from one year to the next that he’s ever seen.

From Average Joe to possible No. 1 pick? Even Joe Burrow himself wouldn’t have dreamed that up. 

At 6' 4", 216 pounds, Burrow cuts the figure of a big-time college quarterback. He may even fool you into thinking he’s already in the NFL, with his businesslike attitude, low voice and intense focus. He was four-star rated at Athens High, guiding the Bulldogs to a Division III state runner-up finish in 2014 as a senior, but his limited arm strength made him less attractive to blue-blood programs. Then Ohio State offensive coordinator Tom Herman, now the coach at Texas, had to persuade his boss, Urban Meyer, to offer Burrow a scholarship after seeing him during a scouting trip.

In Columbus, Burrow had some bad luck. At first he sat behind J.T. Barrett, then behind future NFL first-rounder Dwayne Haskins, but he also broke his right thumb during camp of his second year, eventually costing him a shot at the ’18 starting job. Instead of potentially spending another year on the bench, he announced his transfer in April 2018. 

Burrow whittled a list of two dozen interested schools—including Georgia, Alabama and Michigan—to two: LSU and Cincinnati, the latter a favorite to land Burrow because of his relationship with Bearcats coach Luke Fickell, the former Buckeyes defensive coordinator. “I thought he was leaning that way,” says Jimmy Burrow, Joe’s father, a former coach who spearheaded his son’s transfer recruitment. 

A visit to LSU changed things. Joe Burrow dined on crawfish at a Baton Rouge restaurant, broke down film with coaches during a four-hour meeting and was wooed by one of the sport’s best known recruiters, coach Ed Orgeron. 

“As we leave, Coach O is like ‘Did you get my number?’”says Dan Burrow. “That was cool. We kept in touch throughout that next week. Joe really had to sit down and think about it. He told us he wants to play football at the highest level. ‘If that’s true,’ I told him, ‘there’s LSU and there’s Cincinnati. There’s only one answer.’ ”

Joe arrived in Baton Rouge three months before the ’18 opener, won the job in preseason camp and then finished the year with a furious four-game stretch, completing 67% of his passes for 291.5 yards a game while throwing 10 touchdowns to one interception. The run convinced Orgeron to speed up his plan to overhaul an archaic, run-heavy offense.

From the first snap of 2019, Burrow has flourished in a new shotgun-based, no-huddle spread system implemented this offseason by Joe Brady, a 30-year-old former Saints assistant. The quarterback has already shattered single-season school records for passing touchdowns (41) and yards (4,014) while throwing just six interceptions. He’s the second-most prolific passer in college football (364.9 yards per game) and the most accurate (78.6%), startling statistics for a QB who last year threw for 2,894 yards and 16 TDs while completing 57.8% of his attempts. 

“For Joe, [the talent has] been there,” says junior running back Clyde Edwards-Helaire. “It just wasn’t displayed a lot because of the offense we were running.”

Says an LSU football staff member, “We were asking him to play Uno when he’s a chess master.” The new offense plays to Burrow’s strength: his mind. His coaches say his football IQ is off the charts. 

It was on full display in the final seconds of LSU’s Week 2 win at then No. 9 Texas, when Burrow identified a jailbreak blitz, stepped up into a collapsing pocket and, off balance with a defender in his face, whistled a pass to receiver Justin Jefferson for a 61-yard touchdown on third-and-17. Within hours of LSU’s 45–38 victory, a framed photograph of the play was hung inside the halls of the Tigers’ football operations center. 

Burrow’s acumen can be traced back to parents, both of whom are educators. His mother, Robin, is an elementary school principal and Jimmy is a longtime college and high school teacher who played safety under Tom Osborne in Lincoln. The baby of the family—Joey, his family calls him—is a much younger half-brother to Jamie, 40, and Dan, 38. Around the time that Jamie started at middle linebacker for a 2001 Nebraska team that lost in the national championship game, Joey began playing youth football, transitioning from the family forte, defense, to quarterback because the Bulldogs didn’t have any other capable passers. 

But just because he played offense did not mean he played soft. “He had no choice,” Jimmy says. “We weren’t going to let him not play physical.”

That mentality persists. Orgeron calls Burrow a linebacker playing quarterback. The coach jokes that he may institute a new pregame ritual to fire up his quarterback: having players bang against him in the locker room.

The Tigers point to the aftermath of LSU’s seven-overtime, five-hour, 74–72 marathon loss at Texas A&M in November ’18 in which Burrow attempted 38 passes and ran 29 times. One minute, he lay on the visiting locker room floor. The next, he was on a table with an IV in his arm and trainers feeding him cookies and applesauce. And then he saw his mom and dad, ushered inside by team personnel for one of the scariest sights any parent could see—their son a literal example of a human body giving out after a football game. The issue was serious enough that it delayed the team’s scheduled departure from Kyle Field, trainers tending to Joe before finally helping him to the bus. 

“To see somebody put that kind of effort, desire and passion into a game,” longtime head LSU trainer Jack Marucci says, “it’s probably one of the first times I’ve seen anyone get into that kind of state of fatigue.”

Burrow embraces the grueling side of the game. “I enjoy getting hit sometimes,” Burrow said earlier this season. “It makes me feel like a real football player instead of a quarterback. People can look down on quarterbacks if they’re not taking hits.”

Excluding sacks, Burrow has 52 rushing attempts this year for more than 200 yards. He doesn’t run like your average quarterback, rarely heading out of bounds or sliding. Against Alabama, Burrow converted four third downs on game-securing scoring drives in the fourth quarter, two of them on runs of 15 and 18 yards.

Butch Dill-USA TODAY Sports

His ability to withstand body blows endeared him not only to his new LSU teammates but also to the Tigers’ fans. Many faithful don number 9 jerseys with a Cajun-flavored alteration to his last name across their backs: Burreaux. Still, Burrow’s relocation to the Deep South wasn’t seamless. On his first trip to LSU’s dining hall teammates shamed him for eating a salad, instead pushing him to down fried chicken. (Which helps explains why Burrow gained 10 pounds his first six weeks.) The heat forced him to trim his shoulder-length locks and melted his very first pair of cleats, LSU’s outdoor artificial turf climbing well above 100º in the summer. 

By the start of this season, Burrow fit in. The win over Texas in Week 2, in which he threw for 471 yards, was the first of four conquests of Top 10 teams. The upset over Alabama propelled Burrow to the top of the Heisman list.

Along the way Burrow has been fueled by the doubters who have dogged him since high school. He admits to keeping a log of the most egregious ones, as well as other slights. “Mental notes,” he says. “I still remember quarterbacks that schools took ahead of me in high school.”

He thinks about being ignored at All-Star events during high school, being neglected by Nebraska and the two failed cracks at the Ohio State starting job. “That really messed with him mentally,” says Dan. “He thought he had won the job.”

Burrow is calm and collected by nature, but sometimes the years of frustration surfaces. During a meeting with a television crew earlier this year, he confronted SEC Network analyst Jordan Rodgers, one of Burrow’s harshest critics over the last year. “The vast majority of fans I encounter have an inflated impression of Joe Burrow,” Rodgers had tweeted in August. “He was good in moments last year, but wildly inconsistent, and frankly very poor against good competition.” 

The network meeting this fall came amid Burrow’s rise as the sport’s best quarterback. Cole Cubelic, another analyst present in the room, sensed tension between Burrow and Rodgers. He broke the ice by asking Burrow how much he hated Rodgers. Burrow quickly responded, “I definitely don’t like him,” and the room burst into laughter.

Burrow embraces the lighter side of things: He often sports clothes depicting cartoons—SpongeBob SquarePants, much of the time—and out of superstition wears one sock inside out each game. He holds strong views on the NCAA’s rules against allowing athletes to be compensated. “The system right now is broken,” he says. He is also forthright and open about social issues. During a summer interview with SI, he referenced a tweet from President Trump that directed four U.S. congresswomen to “go back” to their home countries.

“Why does racial inequality have to be political?” Burrow asked. “It’s basic human decency.”

Burrow’s opinions aren’t a talking point when scouts filter through the LSU football facility. According to Kevin Faulk, the former Tigers running back who is now the program’s director of player development, as many as 30 scouts visit each week. Before the Alabama game, seven scouts and a general manager were in one room analyzing Burrow’s film.

Conversations with NFL personnel about Burrow often involve Tom Brady, a teammate of Faulk’s in New England for 12 seasons. Burrow reminds Faulk of Brady in a variety of ways: poise, competitiveness and, most of all, vindictive attitude.

“You don’t think Tom doesn’t remember that he barely got drafted?” Faulk asks. “Joe remembers a whole lot of stuff.”

Burrow can seem focused squarely on football and his own pursuits. He lives off-campus, alone, and admits that there are parts of campus he’s never even seen. Having graduated from Ohio State with a degree in consumer and family finance, Burrow has a light masters-level classload that is online only.

Each Monday at the football facility, he is involved in a film-based exam of the next opponent, a test in which he must identify protection calls he’ll have to make. That means his Sundays are filled with film study. On Mondays and Tuesdays of game week, he meets with Joe Brady and offensive coordinator Steve Ensminger to pitch them his ideas on how to attack the next opponent. He pitches them ideas. 

The two coaches trust their quarterback with presnap play calls; he’ll often change receiver routes based on defensive formations. “We might see it better than they do in the box or on the sideline,” Burrow says. “If I see something and want to check a play, I go do it.”

“He’s basically like a co-offensive coordinator,” Herbstreit says. “That’s the NFL model, when you have a quarterback able to invest and communicate at that level. Joe is the cutting edge of that mold. When I watch LSU, it’s not just Joe Brady’s offense—it’s Joe Brady and Joe Burrow’s offense.”

Derick E. Hingle-USA TODAY Sports

Chris Huston, a college football historian who runs Heisman.com, compares Burrow’s one-year surge with the 2002 emergence of Carson Palmer, who like Burrow had ho-hum stats as a redshirt junior before scorching defenses in his final season. But while many viewed Palmer as a top-flight talent who had, before his final year, underachieved, that isn’t the case for Burrow. “People last year weren’t asking, ‘What’s wrong with Joe Burrow?’ says Rece Davis, a longtime ESPN analyst and host of the network’s pregame show, College GameDay. “They thought they knew who he was.” 

Others compare him with Heisman dark horses of the 1980s—Tim Brown, the first receiver to win the Heisman, or Barry Sanders, who burst onto the scene as a junior. In more recent history, there were unexpected winners like Cam Newton in 2010 and Johnny Manziel in ’12, but because they won the award after their first season as a starter, they weren’t written off as Burrow was after last year. 

Over the summer agents and scouts told Jimmy Burrow that his son was a mid- to late-round pick. Now they’re telling him first round. The hip injury to Alabama quarterback Tua Tagovailoa could result in Burrow’s being the first quarterback drafted or possibly the No. 1 overall choice. His stiffest competition may be Oregon quarterback Justin Herbert, as well as defensive lineman Chase Young of Ohio State. 

“That toughness and competitiveness gene he has is a very good indicator of how he’s going to do at the next level,” says Daniel Jeremiah, a former NFL scout for the Ravens, the Browns and the Eagles, who’s now an analyst for NFL Network. “You start listing all of his good qualities and you realize how much you like him. You ask, ‘What’s wrong with him?’ Well, he doesn’t have a huge arm. Who cares?”

The biggest debate in the 2019 draft was Kyler Murray’s height. This time it will be Joe Burrow’s arm. 

“I think he’s got the real chance of being the No. 1 overall pick, but it’s still hard to convince some people because a guy doesn’t have the great body or great arm,” says one NFL scout. “He’s not a prototype guy from those standpoints. Maybe the NFL should change its prototype.”

Burrow still has time to improve his draft stock. He has a national title to chase. He may have to beat his former team to do so: Ohio State is No. 2 in the CFP rankings. Burrow remains close with several figures from his days in Columbus, including Meyer, who texts him before and after nearly every game.

For the rest of this season, at least, the Burrow family’s allegiances are to LSU. Before most games, you’ll find Joe’s parents and brothers under a tent in the shadow of Tiger Stadium, a Burrow Gang banner marking their location as they partake of gumbo and jambalaya.

All the members of the family are trying to wrap their minds around this whirlwind. “It blows my mind where it started and where we are today,” says Dan. “I thought he could be here and do it, but it’s mind-blowing for me—he did it. He’s here. It’s real. It’s crazy.”

Matt Porter is in a state of disbelief too. Back in June, Porter, an LSU fan living in Fort Lauderdale, put $50 on Burrow to win the Heisman Trophy at 200-to-1 for a potential payout of $10,000. When Burrow became a serious contender, in late October, Porter’s gambling outlet offered him $3,865.38 to cash out. He passed. 

And now? Porter is already making plans to take his girlfriend to the Bahamas.

The long shot is now a veritable shoo-in. And that’s no fairy tale.

[LSUDad]

How Ed Orgeron and LSU Landed 'Game-Changer' QB Transfer Joe Burrow

How did LSU football land a coveted quarterback transfer many had pegged for Cincinnati? It all changed with a 48-hour weekend trip to Baton Rouge.

ROSS DELLENGER

MAY 29, 2018

DESTIN, Fla. — The meeting lasted at least three hours.

The participants of this unique film session didn’t have to leave for lunch—it was catered into LSU’s offensive staff meeting room.

There, on the room’s far wall, a projector flickered to life with plays from Joe Burrow’s days as an Ohio State quarterback. The air filled with football talk from LSU coach Ed Orgeron, offensive coordinator Steve Ensminger and the Burrow clan: the quarterback himself, his football-coaching father Jimmy and his brother Dan.

 

“All ’ball,” Orgeron described it.

On a day when transfers were the hottest topic at SEC spring meetings, the second-year Tigers head coach relived the film breakdowns and boiled crawfish that helped land one of the biggest fish in this offseason’s grad transfer market.

Burrow, a four-star prospect who spent three years as a backup for the Buckeyes, signed with LSU a week ago and moved to Baton Rouge this past weekend. A graduate transfer, he can play immediately with two years of eligibility.

Many in and around the LSU football program believe that Burrow has very quickly replaced whoever you thought was the favorite to step into one of the nation’s most criticized positions over the last half decade: LSU starting quarterback.

His most recent predecessors under center have never been far away from intense scrutiny. Anthony Jennings, Brandon Harris, Danny Etling and… Joe Burrow?

Orgeron heaped praise on his new quarterback, calling him a “game-changer and difference maker” in his first public comments since Burrow’s signing. “He’s smart and tough, got accuracy.”

How one of the country’s most heralded recruiters, Orgeron, landed one of the nation’s most prized transfers, Burrow, involves a 48-hour trip the quarterback’s family took to Baton Rouge.

“He didn’t want the red carpet. He wanted football,” Orgeron said from the Hilton Sandestin Beach Resort Hotel on Tuesday, the opening day of the four-day SEC spring meetings, much of which has focused on NCAA transfer legislation. “He didn’t want none of the recruiting process, none of that.”

Burrow dined with coaches Friday night, May 11, at Texas de Brazil, a pricey steakhouse chain that coaches use to court high school recruits during official visits. The film study unfolded Saturday. Coaches showed clips of Burrow while at Ohio State, comparing and contrasting them to plays in Ensminger’s new offense—specifically the system he ran in 2016 as LSU’s interim offensive coordinator.

“Had a nice cut-up of some of the plays that he ran and some of the plays we run. We asked him to take us through his reads. He was excellent,” Orgeron said. “He knew exactly what was going on, exactly the coverage, the reads. We went through some quarterback run plays. He was A-plus in that meeting.”

Coaches showed Burrow a video that focused on gaudy statitics the Tigers mounted during Ensminger’s interim stint. Saturday night included a dining trip to Mike Anderson’s, a popular seafood restaurant in Baton Rouge.

“He really liked the boiled crawfish,” Orgeron said.

 

The weekend in Baton Rouge—the food, the film study and, even more so, the lure of playing time—“turned the tide” in his transfer recruitment, Orgeron said. Burrow arrived for his visit after a one-day trip to Cincinnati, the only other team Burrow requested to speak with and the one many considered the favorite, Orgeron among them.

“When he came here, he was thinking about Cincinnati pretty hard,” the coach admitted.

Instead, Burrow chose a place 1,000 miles from his home, The Plains, Ohio. His family was on board, including his father Jimmy Burrow, a longtime defensive coordinator at Ohio University. In fact, “all of his family” wanted him at LSU, Orgeron said.

“But he made the decision on his own,” the coach said. “When he came and saw the opportunity he had, met some of our players, met Coach Ensminger, he liked it, liked what we presented to him.”

LSU first-year safeties coach Bill Busch served as the lead recruiter on Burrow. Busch served on Urban Meyer’s support staff at Ohio State in 2015, Burrow’s freshman season.

There was another convincing person, too: Burrow’s brother Dan, who lives in Houston.

“Got to give Bill Busch a lot of credit,” Orgeron said. “His brother Dan was here and really, really was instrumental in convincing him to come to LSU throughout the week.”

Orgeron said he did not promise Burrow the job but had heard other programs did. (The Bearcats were the only other school the quarterback visited.) Still, at LSU Burrow’s path to the starting job appears relatively clear. “He obviously saw that there’s not an established quarterback, and he took the opportunity,” Orgeron said.

Burrow will compete against second-year players and previous four-star signees Myles Brennan and Lowell Narcisse and redshirt junior Justin McMillan, a Texas native who is scheduled to graduate in July and could potentially transfer elsewhere to play immediately, as Burrow did.

Is Orgeron replacing a potential transfer with one? Maybe, but the coach says none of the three have given any indication that they’re planning on leaving.

If Burrow does secure the starting job, he would be at least the third former major college transfer to break into the first team this season for LSU: Defensive end Breiden Fehoko and receiver Jonathan Giles, both from Texas Tech, are set to start in 2018. Tight end Thaddeus Moss, the son of Randy Moss who transferred last year from NC State, is expected to be heavily involved, too. Orgeron has used the transfer market more than his predecessor, Les Miles.

“Our team has embraced all transfers, all junior college guys,” Orgeron said. “They understand there’s an opportunity, and competition makes us all better. There’s no starting quarterback at LSU right now. None’s been named. He’s going to just jump into the race. He’s going to have the opportunity to earn it just like everybody else.”

[Herb]

https://www.si.com/college/2019/11/26/joe-burrow-lsu-tigers-nfl

 

Good read.

[Eq4bits]

That SI cover pic is now the wallpaper on my phone

[Herb]

Real men of Genius:

 

Quote

When asked about Burrow at the time, Nebraska coach Scott Frost said, “You think he’s better than what we got?”

 

[houtiger]

One of the things about Burrow is that he graduated from Ohio State, that's why he was immediately eligible at LSU.  Burrow has only taken online classes, and a very light schedule for his two years at LSU.  When asked if he wanted to play in the NFL last year, he said, "there is no plan B".  He has dedicated his whole career to getting drafted and playing pro ball.  He has the brains and work ethic to watch film and talk to the coaches.  I hear he prepares for games like Payton Manning did.  That's where his confidence comes from.  He knows that he knows what to do.  Don't expect to replace what Burrow has brought to the team when he leaves, because what he has brought is experience and work ethic.

The little I see of Miles Brennan, and the announcers say this, his arm is a little better than Joe's, in terms of velocity.  He can make the throws, but we don't know about his accuracy.  But what is between his ears, we don't know that.  He has had time to get ready, he put in the work on weight lifting and nutrition to add about 40 lbs. in 3 years.  He has done what it takes to get ready.  He should know the offense.  But his first year as a starter will probably be more like Joe's first year as a starter after sitting for 3 years.  That is assuming he wins the starters job, and he should.

[LSUDad]

Joe Burrow's tweet following Texas A&M blowout win, Senior Day going viral

SDS Staff | 1 hour ago

 

 

 

 

Joe Burrow couldn’t have scripted his college football career any better. From frustrations of not winning the starting job at Ohio State to transferring to LSU and becoming the SEC’s all-time leading passer in a season, Burrow’s Tigers career has been unbelievable.

The LSU quarterback capped the regular season off in remarkable fashion Saturday night, as he and his teammates drubbed Texas A&M 50-7. Burrow broke Tim Couch’s passing record Saturday night, and he tied Drew Lock’s touchdown record for a season.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Burrow had already won over fans, but if there were any other stragglers, he won them over, too, with his pregame uniform on Senior Night. Burrow appeared on the field with his given Cajun name Joe “Burreaux.”

 

Following the game, Burrow’s tweet about LSU has been shared over 5,000 times and liked more than 26,000 times.

“A tribute to this great state and university. Death Valley, where opponents dreams come to die… but where mine came true,” Burrow wrote on Twitter as he shared his run out of the tunnel for Senior Day.

Joey Burrow

 

✔@Joe_Burrow10

 

 

A tribute to this great state and university. Death Valley, where opponents dreams come to die... but where mine came true https://twitter.com/lsufootball/status/1200927473275301888 …

LSU Football

 

✔@LSUfootball

 

No. 9
Joe Burrow

 

 

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12:05 AM - Dec 1, 2019

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6,372 people are talking about this

 

 

 

 

LSU finishes the regular season 12-0, and Burrow is likely on his way to winning the Heisman Trophy. However, for LSU, three more wins stand in between it and its goals of a national championship.

[LSUDad]

Joe Burrow’s Quote About LSU’s Student Section Is Going Viral

BATON ROUGE, LOUISIANA - AUGUST 31: Quarterback Joe Burrow #9 of the LSU Tigers warms up prior to the game against the Georgia Southern Eagles at Tiger Stadium on August 31, 2019 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. (Photo by Marianna Massey/Getty Images)

LSU quarterback Joe Burrow played his final game at Tiger Stadium on Saturday evening. The Heisman Trophy favorite led his team to a blowout win over Texas A&M, finishing the regular season undefeated.

Burrow shared a heartfelt moment with LSU’s student section following the game.

The star quarterback got a hero’s welcome as he made his way over to the students.

Burrow was serenaded by cheers and chants by the Tiger faithful:

Brandon Adam@badam___

 

 

Joe Burrow heads over to the student section for the last time to a thunderous applause and a “I love you Joe Burrow!” #LSU

 

 

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9:43 PM - Nov 30, 2019

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Burrow was the last player seen leaving the field. He explained – in classic Joe Burrow form – what the moment meant to him.

“Obviously, I don’t go to class because I only take online classes, so I don’t get to see any of those people. I just wanted to see them for the first time and thank them for coming to the games and making this the best atmosphere in the country,” Burrow told reporters.

Adam Rittenberg

 

✔@ESPNRittenberg

 

 

LSU quarterback Joe Burrow on why he went over to the student section after Saturday's win: "Obviously, I don't go to class because I only take online classes, so I don't get to see any of those people. I just wanted to see them for the first time and... https://es.pn/37VKlK6 

 

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Burrow transferred to LSU after graduating from Ohio State. He’s spent two years with the Tigers’ program and has been pursuing a graduate degree.

LSU will take on Georgia in the SEC Championship Game next Saturday afternoon.

[Herb]