How Ohio State, USC made LSU football elite again

A transfer, a belief that USC could do better and a program telling a quarterback he wasn’t good enough led to the resurgence of LSU football.

Coming out of high school, Joe Burrow wanted to be a Nebraska Cornhusker. After all, the Cornhuskers had once been a national powerhouse and a popular destination for the top high school prospects in the nation.

Unfortunately, Burrow didn’t meet the skill level Nebraska was looking for at quarterback and was turned away, according to an interview with ESPN‘s Tom Rinaldi.

That meant that he had to “settle” for the best offer on his sheet which was Ohio State. It was the home-state school and every kid from Ohio dreamed of playing for the Buckeyes, but for Burrow, it was option No. 2. Still, not a bad problem to have.

Burrow worked behind the scenes for a few years and then, as a redshirt junior, saw his opportunity to rise to the top of the depth chart, but the favor seemed to be directed at Dwayne Haskins, a redshirt sophomore. Burrow had a fantastic spring game with the Buckeyes in 2018, but shortly after decided to leave Ohio State and find a new home. He just didn’t want to waste his final years of eligibility on uncertainty.

With a new head coach at the helm in Lincoln, Burrow looked toward Nebraska yet again, but Scott Frost liked what he had on the roster over a kid from Ohio who seemingly couldn’t beat out Haskins. The interest was not mutual.

Cincinnati seemed to be the favorite as it was close to home, Burrow had just taken a trip there and he had one final visit before making a decision: LSU.

Ed Orgeron brought Burrow and his family down for a 48-hour visit, showed him some film, sold him on the offense and playing time and dined him at some of the best restaurants in Baton Rouge. Cincinnati went from being the favorite to a distant No. 2 as LSU took the commanding lead.

Burrow committed to the Tigers, seeing an opportunity to take the reins at quarterback immediately.

It was a match made in heaven, especially since Orgeron knew all about what Burrow had gone through with Nebraska and Ohio State.

In fact, Orgeron himself had been told he wasn’t good enough for some of the premier jobs in college football, taking over as USC’s interim head coach back in 2013 and leading the Trojans to a 6-2 record. The players loved him, he breathed some life into the program, but all the athletic department saw was a guy with little head coaching experience who went 10-25 with Ole Miss six years before. They decided to move on, hiring Steve Sarkisian.

Orgeron was kicked to he curb, took a year off and then decided to join LSU’s coaching staff in 2015 as a defensive line coach. And then, in 2016, something familiar happened: LSU fired its head coach, Les Miles, mid-season and promoted Orgeron to interim. He got another chance to prove himself worthy of a Power Five coaching job and didn’t disappoint, going 6-2 in the season’s final eight games, winning the Citrus Bowl as well.

For the second time in a decade, Orgeron took over a disaster and turned it into a winner.

Was he good enough to stick around? The players and fans hoped so, and LSU’s athletic department agreed, removing the “interim” tag from his name and making him the 32nd full-time head coach of the Tigers in November 2016.

It was a dream come true for the mumble-ridden head coach. He wasn’t your typical Power Five coach, though, he was a football guy first and not exactly a woo-er of the media. He didn’t give the greatest interviews, because you often couldn’t understand what he was saying, but that’s what made fans fall in love. He was himself and didn’t change his style or personality for anyone, no matter how big he got.

The start to his full-time tenure got off to a rocky start, though, as he lost to Troy at home to fall unranked in 2017 before finishing the season 9-4.

The biggest problem he faced, though? Offensive challenges.

That’s where Burrow came in. Orgeron saw that Burrow was hitting the transfer market and knew he needed to make his move in order to wow him enough to venture away from The Plains, Ohio, for the remainder of his college football career.

And he did just that.

All Burrow has done in his two years at LSU is break records and win games. In fact, as a starter, the senior is 23-3 with LSU and has pieced together back-to-back top-10 finishes for the Tigers. This year, he has led LSU to the No. 1 overall ranking in the College Football Playoff and there are few people betting against the Tigers to win it all.

Oh, and the former Ohio State backup is the latest winner of the Heisman Trophy.

Orgeron’s belief in Burrow as a game-changer and a kid who could lift the program back up and turn the offense around led to this resurgence. But that, too, would not have been possible without LSU’s belief in Orgeron as a serious Power Five coach.

Who can LSU thank for this return to greatness? It all leads back to Nebraska believing it was “just fine” at quarterback a couple of times and USC thinking that it could do better.

Now the Cornhuskers are bowl-less with a quarterback issue following the 2019 season and USC fans are fed up with Clay Helton as the head coach with another four-loss season under his belt.

It’s crazy how things work out.

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