Dwayne Haskins and Joe Burrow had intense rivalry before transfer

Dwayne Haskins and Joe Burrow’s rivalry at Ohio State was an intense one.

With the stakes as high as they were, no wonder Dwayne Haskins and Joe Burrow were rivals.

Back in 2018, the Ohio State Buckeyes starting quarterback job was there for the taking. Burrow and Haskins battled for it throughout the spring, with Haskins edging out Burrow for the nod. While Haskins would be a 2018 Heisman Trophy finalist and a first-round pick in the 2019 NFL Draft, Burrow would become a legend after transferring to the LSU Tigers down in SEC country.

Though Burrow and Haskins are friends, they had an intense rivalry for about two years, as they vied for playing time in Urban Meyer’s Ohio State offense. Haskins, Meyer and Meyer’s FOX college Rob Stone discussed all that led up to that on FOX’s Ring Chronicles Monday. Haskins revealed to Meyer, Stone and the rest of the world how heated things got between he and Burrow that spring.

How intense was Joe Burrow and Dwayne Haskins’ rivalry at Ohio State?

“I love Joe but during that battle, for almost two years, me and Joe couldn’t stand each other,” said Haskins. “Every day, whether it was morning workouts or when we had to do mat drills and it’d be me and him on the mat drill, it was gritty.

“Or it was practice and me and him are trying to get in front of each other to get a rep to throw to one of the starting receivers. It was always this heated competition but we knew we got the best out of each other. He made it hard for me and I made it hard for him and I didn’t let him take it away.”

After a record-setting year with Ohio State in 2018, Haskins became the first Big Ten quarterback to go in the first round since Kerry Collins of the Penn State Nittany Lions went to the expansion Carolina Panthers back in 1995. Haskins had a frustrating rookie season, but hopes to improve in his second year with the Washington Football Team under new head coach Ron Rivera.

Burrow spent two years playing for Ed Orgeron at LSU. During his redshirt senior season, Burrow gave us arguably the greatest single season in college football history. The Bayou Bengals went 15-0, as Burrow won the Heisman Trophy and gave LSU its first national title since 2007. He went No. 1 overall to the Cincinnati Bengals in the 2020 NFL Draft.

Given that they play in opposite NFL conferences these days, look for Burrow and Haskins to cheer each other on from afar and hope his former teammate has success at the professional level. However, when Cincinnati and Washington play, look for things to heat up in his old, familiar rivalry forged in Columbus years ago. This is the nature of their friendship, albeit a competitive one.

Rivalries can be friendly and well intentioned, but it’s only natural for the intensity to be amplified.

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