Kirk Hersbtreit breaks down LSU quarterback Joe Burrow’s coming-of-age season

LSU Tigers quarterback Joe Burrow has been one of the biggest stories in college football and Kirk Herbstreit explains the secret to his breakout season.

Joe Burrow has been a revelation for the LSU Tigers who are the No. 1 team in the country because of the breakout season by the Heisman Trophy front-runner.

For decades, LSU was held back by poor quarterback play that diminished otherwise talented rosters full of future NFL players. No matter how loaded LSU’s roster was with running backs, linemen, receivers, linebackers and defensive backs, quarterback play was the primary reason behind LSU falling behind Alabama in the SEC and Les Miles losing his job as the Tigers head coach.

Burrow has already broken the LSU single-season record for touchdown passes and should shatter the record with 30 touchdowns (only four interceptions) through eight games. Burrow ranks second in the nation in touchdown passes and yards to Washington State’s Anthony Gordon, third in rating and first with a 78.8 completion percentage.

To hear Kirk Herbstreit explain it, he’s a completely different player, because he’s in a much more comfortable setting, doing the things he’s been doing since he was in high school.

“Last year he was under center which was very unusual and different for him compared to what he did in high school and what he did at Ohio State before he transferred to LSU,” Herbstreit said. “He almost looked like a fish out of water. He looked very uncomfortable and unnatural based on who he had been to that point.”

LSU head coach Ed Orgeron knew he had to get more out of Burrow and the offense so he went to the New Orleans Saints and plucked Joe Brady off Sean Payton’s staff with the hope of Burrow doing the same things Drew Brees did for the Saints.

So far, it’s been one of the most brilliant hires of the year, perhaps the decade.

“Joe Brady comes in to bring in an up-tempo approach and a full progression with four or five receivers out at a time and he’s in shotgun almost every snap. You’ve got guys out in space and he’s got some of the best receivers in the country.”

LSU has had talented receivers in the past, notably Odell Beckham, Jr. and Jarvis Landry but before that in Michael Clayton and Rueben Randle, among others. The problem was LSU’s quarterbacks weren’t able to put their skills on display. That’s different with Burrow operating in Brady’s system.

Now, Justin Jefferson, Ja’Marr Chase and Terrace Marshall Jr. are able to make plays down the field and on the ball. Jefferson and Chase are the best duo since Beckham and Landry and will top 1,000 yards apiece and 10 touchdowns. Marshall should reach double-digit touchdowns too with seven in only five games.

“What’s impressed me is the timing and the relationship between him and his top receivers,” Herbstreit said. “It’s been uncanny. It looks like they’ve been playing together for three, four or five years in this offense.”

This is unheard of production for LSU who has the No. 4 scoring offense in the nation with an average of 46.8 points per game and the No. 2 passing offense with an average of 377.6 yards per game.

“It’s new to LSU to have Joe Brady come over from the Saints and do what they were doing with Drew Brees,” Herbstreit said. “That’s now being done by Joe Burrow. They went from 1975 offensive style that’s really plagued LSU for a long, long time to coming into 2019 and running a very sophisticated NFL system that Joe Burrow right now is flourishing in.”

This sophisticated NFL system might just be what gets LSU another national championship and Burrow the Heisman Trophy.

Kirk Herbstreit joined FanSided on behalf of Allstate where Kirk predicts the Allstate Mayhem Moment every Tuesday and to talk about the Allstate Playoff Predictor.

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