LSU’s 2019 group was arguably the single greatest team in college football history. They went a perfect 15-0 on the season and utterly dominated the four-team College Football Playoff. They crushed Oklahoma 63-28 in the semifinal before defeating Clemson 42-25 in the championship game. And it was largely thanks to head coach Ed Orgeron and his shrewd recruitment of QB Joe Burrow.
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Prior to arriving at LSU in 2018, Burrow had spent three years languishing in the lower reaches of the depth chart at perennial powerhouse Ohio State. After his third year there in 2017, he entered the transfer portal.
However, with just 39 pass attempts, 287 passing yards, two TDs, and no starts to his name through three seasons, there wasn’t much hype around the youngster in the early weeks and months of 2018. Still, after LSU’s current QB struggled mightily in their spring game, a chance mention of Burrow by Orgeron’s son put the QB on LSU’s radar.
“Thank god we had him for two years. We needed that,” Orgeron said on Pardon My Take.
“I had a vision in my mind of what we needed. So we had our spring ball, back when the spring game was on TV… And our QB didn’t play well. And I got a son playing back East, and he called me and he said, ‘Dad, our QB sucked today.’ I said, ‘I know, I know. I get it.’ He [then] said, ‘Dad, there’s a guy named Joe Burrow transferring from Ohio State you oughta look him up!'”
Thankfully for Orgeron, he already had someone on his staff, safeties coach Bill Busch, who had connections with the Buckeyes, having spent the 2015 season in Columbus as their defensive quality control coach. That was Burrow’s redshirt freshman year with the program, and based on that small sample size, Busch was more than bullish on Burrow.
“[Busch] says, ‘Coach, if we get Joe Burrow, we’re going to the College Football Playoffs.’ I said, ‘Let’s go get him,'” Orgeron added.
Unfortunately, Burrow’s girlfriend at the time was attending Cincinnati, and one of the coaches who had helped recruit him to Ohio State, Luke Fickell, was now the head coach at Cincinnati. So when Burrow visited LSU, it seemed he had already decided on joining the Bearcats.
Burrow even told Orgeron he didn’t want to be sold on LSU because he had already made up his mind. However, the coach still made his case to the 21-year-old the next day at a “football meeting” that included several coaches, Burrow’s family members, and Burrow himself.
“We had about 10-15 people in there… It took me five minutes to figure out that Joe Burrow was the smartest guy in the room. No doubt. So, number one, he’s a smart quarterback… We had a private meeting, I said, ‘Joe … you’re gonna be my starting QB. But you gotta earn it. By the way I got two receivers man, Ja’Marr Chase and Justin Jefferson. You haven’t heard about them yet.'”
Orgeron also swayed the Burrow family, especially the young QB’s brother, Dan. Burrow told everyone he would make his decision in a few days, but Orgeron wouldn’t wait that long.
The 2019 AP Coach of the Year called Dan, and, after receiving some pushback, essentially told him to “grab down there, son,” referring to Dan’s manly parts. After Dan did as he was told, Orgeron then finished with: “squeeze those son of a guns and call your brother and tell him to get to LSU!”
Apparently, that worked. Burrow was the final piece in a beautiful puzzle constructed by Orgeron and company. After winning the National Championship, that 2019 LSU tied an NFL record with 14 players selected in the 2020 draft.
They also tied a record for most draft picks in the first three rounds, with 10. That class included Burrow, Justin Jefferson, Patrick Queen, Clyde Edwards-Helaire, Grant Delpit, Kristian Fulton, Damien Lewis, and more.
Orgeron left after the 2021 season, but that 2019 LSU team continued producing NFL players for two more years. In 2021, Ja’Marr Chase was among six more drafted, and in 2022, Derek Stingley Jr. was the jewel in a class of 10. That’s 2001 Miami Hurricanes levels of impact on the NFL, and all thanks to Coach O and Joe Burrow.
