On validation and vindication: Joe Burrow and Ed Orgeron get the last laugh

Rejected and dejected to vindicated and validated. This is the story of Joe Burrow and Ed Orgeron’s unlikely pairing en route to college football history.

On the surface, Joe Burrow and Ed Orgeron can’t be any more different. Burrow looks like he could be refinancing your mortgage or discussing health insurance options for you while Orgeron looks like he could wrestle an alligator during his lunch break. Below the surface, they were motivated by the same feeling: They wanted to prove they were as good as they thought. They just needed someone to give them an opportunity. They found it at LSU.

Burrow had to leave his dream school, Ohio State, in order to have all his dreams come true at LSU. Ohio State wanted him on the roster, but they wanted Dwayne Haskins to be the starter in 2018. Former Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer remains a Burrow fan today, despite picking Haskins over Burrow in the competition. Meyer wanted the competition to linger into the fall, but Burrow had to bet on himself. He won.

“I know I’m a pretty darn good quarterback, Burrow said after Ohio State’s 2018 spring game. And I want to play somewhere.”

This wasn’t a transfer by a scorned player or a player who was scared of competition. Burrow is loved by Buckeyes fans and by his former Ohio State teammates. From Michael Thomas, Terry McLaurin, J.T. Barrett and Cardale Jones, Burrow will always have a piece of him that’s a Buckeye.

But he’s forever a Tiger.

Orgeron was fired after a 10-25 stint in three years as the head coach at Ole Miss, which culminated with a winless campaign in the SEC in 2007. He was routinely passed over for interviews and opportunities. When he did get an opportunity as an interim head coach at USC in 2013, he led the Trojans to a 6-2 record and got them back on the track toward respectability and credibility.

USC didn’t want him. No one else wanted him as a head coach either.

Two people with a desire to prove people wrong came together in Baton Rouge in 2018 when Burrow transferred to LSU after a Don Draper-like sales pitch from Oregeron. Burrow was hesitant to come to LSU, a place where quarterbacks went to die but sold him on his vision, which included hiring Joe Brady from the New Orleans Saints to bring the LSU offense into the 21st Century.

A few pounds of crayfish later, Burrow was on board.

It took a full year, a year where Burrow didn’t light up the scoreboard or have fans dreaming of shattering records, winning a Heisman or going undefeated en route to winning a national championship.

It took faith, it took a resiliency not many possess and it took one person who had been in Burrow’s shoes to know what to do.

Orgeron wasn’t who LSU fans wanted as their head coach. They wanted Tom Herman or Jimbo Fisher to replace Les Miles. Now, they hope he gets a lifetime extension like Burrow mentioned during his Heisman acceptance speech.

This Hollywood script likely doesn’t play out with Burrow at another school or playing for a different coach. They’re just something about the relationship and the dynamic between Burrow and Orgeron. It’s clear on the sidelines during games. It was never more clear than during the Heisman when Burrow and Orgeron were moved to tears when expressing what the other means to them.

All it takes is for one person to believe in you to feel like you are invincible.

Burrow needed Orgeron.

Orgeron needed Burrow.

LSU football took on the identity of their head coach and their quarterback to make college football history.

Two people who were passed up and overlooked are now linked forever as LSU legends.

Vindication and validation never felt so good.

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