Joe Burrow
Joseph Lee Burrow is an American football quarterback for the Cincinnati Bengals of the National Football League. After starting his college football career as a backup at Ohio State, he transferred to LSU in 2018, where he became the starter and eventually led LSU to the National Championship in 2019. Burrow passed for over 5,600 yards with 60 touchdowns that season, the latter being the most in a single season in NCAA FBS history. He won several awards and honors for his performance, including the Heisman Trophy and Maxwell Award. Many journalists and sportswriters deemed the season to be the greatest ever by a college quarterback. He was selected first overall by the Bengals in the 2020 NFL Draft.
Early years
Burrow was born in Ames, Iowa, on December 10, 1996. He is the son of Robin and former University of Nebraska, NFL, and CFL player Jim Burrow, who went on to a coaching career that lasted nearly 40 years. The elder Burrow, whose last coaching position was defensive coordinator for the Ohio Bobcats for more than a decade, retired after the 2018 season in part to be able to see all of Joe's games in his final college season. Burrow was born in Ames, while his father was on the staff for the Iowa State Cyclones. According to a 2019 Sports Illustrated story, "The Burrow athletic lineage dates back nearly a century." In the 1940s, one of his grandmothers set a Mississippi state high school record with an 82-point game in basketball. His paternal grandfather played basketball at Mississippi State; his uncle, John Burrow, played football at Ole Miss; and two older brothers also played football at Nebraska.He attended the 2002 Rose Bowl at age six, as his father was an assistant coach for Nebraska. Not long after, he began playing in youth football leagues. Unlike his father, uncle, and brothers, who all played on defense, Burrow started out as a quarterback, because his first youth team had no one else who could play the position. The Burrow family moved to Fargo, North Dakota, in 2003 when his father was hired as the defensive coordinator for the North Dakota State Bison. One day while visiting the office, future Central Michigan head coach Dan Enos commented that the seven year old had a future in football. The Burrows spent two years in Fargo before Jimmy accepted the defensive coordinator position at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio.
Burrow attended Athens High School in The Plains, Ohio, leading the school to three straight playoff appearances and the school's first seven playoff victories in school history. During his career, he passed for 11,416 yards with 157 passing touchdowns and rushed for 2,067 yards with 27 rushing touchdowns. He was awarded the state's Mr. Football Award and Gatorade Player of the Year award as a senior in 2014. He and his Bulldog teammates went 14–1 that season. He was also a standout basketball player, and was named first-team all-state at point guard his senior year. Burrow was rated as a four-star football recruit, and was the eighth-highest ranked dual-threat quarterback in the class of 2015 according to the 247Sports Composite. He committed to Ohio State to play football on May 27, 2014.
In December 2019, the Athens City School District school board unanimously approved a measure to rename the school's football stadium in honor of Burrow.
College career
Ohio State
After redshirting his first year at Ohio State in 2015, Burrow spent the next two years as a backup to J. T. Barrett. Over the two years, he played in 10 games, completing 29 of 39 passes for 287 yards and two touchdowns. Realizing that Dwayne Haskins would be named starting quarterback at Ohio State, Burrow transferred to Louisiana State University on May 20, 2018. Burrow had graduated from Ohio State in three years with a degree in consumer and family financial services, and would be immediately eligible as a graduate transfer.LSU
2018
In his first year at LSU, Burrow was named the starting quarterback as a redshirt junior in 2018. In an early season road trip to then-No. 7 Auburn, Burrow threw for 249 yards and a touchdown en route to a 22–21 win. He was named SEC Offensive Player of the Week following the victory. He again earned SEC Offensive Player of the Week honors following a 292-yard, three-touchdown performance against Ole Miss two weeks later. Burrow helped lead the Tigers to a 10–3 record, including a win over UCF in the Fiesta Bowl, and a No. 6 ranking in the final AP Poll. Burrow finished the season with 2,894 yards passing, 16 touchdowns, and five interceptions. He added 399 rushing yards and seven rushing touchdowns.2019
Burrow was again named LSU's starting quarterback heading into his redshirt senior season in 2019. In the Tigers' season opener against Georgia Southern, Burrow threw for 278 yards and five touchdowns in a 55–3 win, and was later named SEC Co-Offensive Player of the Week. In a week two road trip to then-No. 9 Texas, Burrow threw for 471 yards, four touchdowns, and an interception in the 45–38 win. His 471 yards were the second most in school history and most since Rohan Davey's 528 against Alabama in 2001. He was named Walter Camp National Offensive Player of the Week and SEC Offensive Player of the Week following the performance. Burrow earned his third SEC Offensive Player of the Week honors on September 21 during LSU's game against Vanderbilt. He threw for 398 yards and a school-record-setting six passing touchdowns in the Tigers' 66–38 win. He became the first LSU quarterback to ever throw for 350 yards in three consecutive games.In a 42–6 win over Utah State, Burrow threw for 344 yards and five touchdowns, and became the first ever Tiger quarterback to throw for 300-plus yards in four consecutive games. The streak came to an end the next week against then-No. 7 Florida, but Burrow's 293 yards and three touchdown passes helped lead the Tigers to another win, 42–28. The next week, in LSU's seventh game of the season, Burrow eclipsed the LSU single-season passing touchdowns record of 28 when he added four more in a win against Mississippi State. Burrow led the Tigers to another top-ten win, and broke the LSU record for career 300-yard games with a 321-yard, two-total-touchdown performance against then-No. 9 Auburn.
and linebacker Patrick Queen at LSU's 2020 National Championship post-game press event
LSU's November 9 game against Alabama was highly anticipated as the highest ranked showdown between the two schools since the 2012 BCS National Championship Game; LSU was ranked second and Alabama third in the season's inaugural College Football Playoff rankings released the week prior. The game would also feature two leading candidates for the Heisman Trophy in Burrow and Alabama quarterback Tua Tagovailoa. Burrow and the Tigers came away victorious in a 46–41 shootout. Burrow passed for 393 yards and three touchdowns in the game, and was again named Walter Camp National Offensive Player of the Week and SEC Co-Offensive Player of the Week, sharing the latter with teammate Clyde Edwards-Helaire.
The following week against Ole Miss, Burrow threw for 489 yards and five touchdown passes, and passed LSU's single-season passing yards record set by Rohan Davey in 2001. He also set the LSU record of consecutive completed passes with 17 during the game. On November 30, Burrow helped LSU secure an undefeated regular season with a 50–7 blowout win over Texas A&M, throwing for 352 yards and three touchdowns. During the game, he set the all-time SEC record for single-season passing yards, and tied the conference record for single-season touchdowns of Missouri's Drew Lock. Burrow took sole possession of the SEC single-season touchdown record the following week in the SEC Championship Game, throwing for four touchdowns in LSU's dominant 37–10 win over Georgia that secured the Tigers' place in the College Football Playoff.
On December 14, 2019, Burrow was awarded the 2019 Heisman Trophy, winning by the largest margin in the history of the award, also earning the highest share of possible points available. Burrow's Heisman acceptance speech, in which he referenced the rampant poverty and food insecurity affecting his hometown, inspired over 450,000 in donations towards the local food bank in Athens County from over 13,000 donors. Other awards he won that year include the Maxwell Award, Walter Camp Award, Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award, Davey O'Brien Award, Lombardi Award and Manning Award.
In the playoff semifinal game at the 2019 Peach Bowl, Burrow recorded 29-of-39 pass attempts for 493 passing yards and seven passing touchdowns, to go along with five rushes for 22 rushing yards and a rushing touchdown in a 63–28 victory over fourth-ranked Oklahoma. Burrow's eight total touchdowns were an FBS bowl game record and SEC single game record, and were recorded in just over one half of play before Burrow was rested. Analysts have called the performance one of the greatest in college football history.
In the 2020 National Championship Game against Clemson, Burrow threw for 463 yards with six total touchdowns, five passing, which led LSU to a 42–25 victory and him being named the game's offensive MVP. He finished his 2019 season with 60 passing touchdowns, which broke the single-season FBS record previously held by Colt Brennan in 2006. His 5,671 passing yards ranks third all-time in an FBS season, tied with Case Keenum. His passer rating of 202 for the season was also a record. Several sportswriters deemed the season to be the greatest ever by a college quarterback.