Editor's note: We're counting down to LSU's Sept. 3 season opener against Florida State with a look back at the greatest Tiger players at each number from The Advocate book "LSU By The Numbers." Friday marks nine days until kickoff, so we remember No. 9, Heisman Trophy winner Joe Burrow:
9 Joe Burrow
QB, 2018-19
2019 Heisman Trophy winner
2019 Walter Camp Player of the Year
2019 Maxwell Award
2019 Davey O’Brien Award
2019 Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award
2019 Manning Award
2019 Associated Press Player of the Year
All-American and All-SEC 2019
Sitting in front of a semicircle of reporters in June 2019 at the Manning Passing Academy in Thibodaux, Joe Burrow looked out from beneath the upturned rim of his tan sun hat and made a bold prediction about LSU’s new fast-forward, pass-first offense.
“I think we’re going to score a lot of points,” Burrow said. “I don’t think a lot of people are used to LSU scoring 40, 50, 60 points a game.
“We can be one of the best offenses in the country.”
It sounded at the time like so much summertime hot air, like similar pronouncements about LSU offenses in years past before the Tigers returned to their ground-and-pound, pass-only-when-necessary ways.
But then there were Burrow and the Tigers in November basking in their 46-41 win at Alabama, a win for the ages, with Joe being carried off on his teammates’ shoulders after putting up 457 yards of total offense and throwing for three scores.
“I told ya,” Burrow said happily. “No one believed me. I told ya.”
The season turned out better than even Burrow could have dreamed. Not only did LSU put together the nation’s No. 1-ranked offense, scoring 42 or more points in 12 of its 15 wins, including five games in the 50s and three in the 60s. But Burrow and the Tigers arguably had the best season in college football history, beating seven teams ranked in the top 10 when they played them, including the preseason Associated Press top four (Clemson, Alabama, Georgia and Oklahoma).
And Burrow captured the Heisman Trophy by the biggest voting landslide ever, by 1,846 points over Oklahoma quarterback Jalen Hurts, after throwing for 5,671 yards with an NCAA record 60 passing and 65 total touchdowns. He became the first SEC quarterback to throw for more than 5,000 yards and 50 touchdowns in a season.
Not too bad for a kid who had to transfer from Ohio State to find his opportunity as a starter, and one who started the 2019 season as a 200-to-1 shot to win the sport’s biggest prize.
“My journey, I wouldn’t have traded it for anything in the world,” Burrow said during his acceptance speech in New York, as outside his image played across video boards in Times Square. “I tried to leave a legacy of hard work and preparation, and loyalty and dedication everywhere I go. And I’m surrounded by such great people that make it so easy.”
LSU’s great offense in its great season came from a dynamic mix of factors: Ed Orgeron being willing to go to the spread offense; passing-game coordinator Joe Brady bringing RPO and passing game principles from coaching stints with the Saints and at Penn State; offensive coordinator Steve Ensminger craftily calling the plays; and having playmakers like Biletnikoff Award-winning receiver Ja’Marr Chase and All-SEC players like receiver Justin Jefferson and tailback Clyde Edwards-Helaire.
But Burrow, born in 1996 in Ames, Iowa, where his dad had been an assistant at Iowa State, was the proverbial straw that stirred the Tigers’ drink. He elevated everyone’s game with an almost fanatical attention to detail and toughness that won over his teammates after he arrived at LSU in the summer of 2018.
One play from that 2018 season came to typify Burrow as much as anything.
It was in the Fiesta Bowl against Central Florida, LSU’s first appearance in a New Year’s Six bowl since the College Football Playoff was created for the 2014 season. The Tigers trailed 7-3 when Burrow threw an interception to Brandon Moore at the 7. Burrow was trying to make the tackle when he got leveled on a jarring blindside hit from the Knights’ Joey Connors, allowing Moore to set sail for the end zone.
Burrow was shaken up for a moment but came back on LSU’s next possession to throw a 22-yard touchdown pass to Jefferson, the first of four scoring passes in the Tigers’ 40-32 win.
“Joe,” Chase said, “is tough as hell.”
Did Burrow have a “Heisman moment” in 2019? Take your pick.
The first one that really thrust him into the conversation was a third-and-17 pass with just over 2½ minutes left at Texas with LSU clinging to a 37-31 lead. Burrow stepped up into the pocket under pressure from a six-man rush and threw off his left foot to Jefferson, who streaked up the LSU sideline for the game-clinching score in a 45-38 win.
The second was an 18-yard keeper at Alabama with LSU’s 33-13 halftime lead whittled down to 39-34 with just over two minutes left, setting up the clinching touchdown by Edwards-Helaire on the next play. The last was in the SEC Championship Game against a Georgia team that hadn’t allowed more than 20 points or 343 yards in any game. Burrow ducked and spun and found Jefferson deep downfield for a 71-yard pass, setting up a Burrow-to-Terrace Marshall touchdown pass that put LSU up 27-3 late in the third quarter of a 37-10 victory.
And, a couple of weeks after the Heisman ceremony, as if to prove to voters that they hadn’t been wrong about him, Burrow threw for seven first-half touchdown passes and ran for an eighth in the second half of a 63-28 Peach Bowl win over Oklahoma. That propelled LSU into the CFP National Championship Game in New Orleans against Clemson.
In the title game, Burrow showed his toughness one more time. Delivering a touchdown pass to Thaddeus Moss just before halftime, Burrow got drilled in the ribs by Clemson linebacker James Skalski as he got the pass away. Burrow was clearly in pain but stuck it out, throwing two more second-half touchdown passes in a 42-25 victory.
“This national championship will be remembered for a long time in Louisiana,” a smiling Burrow said afterward. “To do it in New Orleans is even more special.”
It might not have happened if Burrow hadn’t picked LSU or if the Tigers hadn’t recruited him.
When he heard Burrow was looking for a new school, LSU safeties coach Bill Busch told Orgeron they needed to go after him. Busch had been on staff at Ohio State in 2015 when Burrow arrived.
“Coach,” Busch told Orgeron, “if we get Joe Burrow, we’re going to be in the College Football Playoff.”
“Let’s go get him,” was Orgeron’s reply.
Getting Burrow was anything but certain, as he had to decide between staying in Ohio to play at Cincinnati — coincidentally the Cincinnati Bengals made Burrow the No. 1 overall pick in the 2020 NFL draft — or taking a chance on an LSU team that hadn’t remade its offense yet.
Burrow didn’t tip his hand on his recruiting visit in May 2018 as Orgeron pulled out all the stops. That included getting 15 pounds of crawfish delivered from another restaurant because the one Orgeron and the Burrows were at didn't have any. After he went home to Ohio and weighed the options, Burrow decided on LSU.
“Coach O sold me on a vision,” Burrow said.
A vision not Orgeron nor Burrow nor anyone else could have fully imagined then.
But on that magical night in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome, with purple and gold confetti coming down and the gold BCS trophy going up over Burrow’s head, the quarterback with the golden touch would have been justified if he reprised his words after that epic November win in Tuscaloosa.
“I told ya.”
CAREER STATS
Year G-GS Att. Comp. Yards TDs INTs
*2016 5-0 28 22 226 2 0
*2017 5-0 11 7 61 0 0
2018 13-13 379 219 2,894 16 5
2019 15-15 527 402 5,671 60 6
AT LSU 28-28 906 621 8,565 76 11
TOTALS 38-28 650 945 8,852 78 11
*-Played at Ohio State
This LSU great also wore No. 9 ...
Devery Henderson, WR, 2000-03
An All-SEC pick on the Tigers’ 2003 BCS national championship team, but best known for catching the 75-yard The Bluegrass Miracle touchdown pass in 2002 to beat Kentucky 33-30, one of the legendary plays in LSU football history.
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