Joe Burrow, LSU Tigers. (Photo by Jamie Schwaberow/Getty Images)
Joe Burrow doesn’t even play for LSU anymore and he’s STILL winning awards.
Joe Burrow was so good at college football, he’s still winning awards five months after his final game at LSU.
Burrow took home every major award last season as the Heisman Trophy-winning superstar quarterback of the LSU Tigers. He became the second Bayou Bengal to take the Heisman back to Baton Rouge, as the 2019 LSU team achieved 15-0 perfection, winning the College Football Playoff for the first time in school history.
Burrow dominated college football so much last season that he earned the right to be drafted by the worst team in the NFL in the Cincinnati Bengals. It’s cool because Burrow is cool and he’s going to take this long moribund AFC North franchise and turn it into a winner. If he can become a legend throwing the forward pass at a place like LSU, Burrow can do the unthinkable.
If you need any more proof of how transformative of a player Burrow was at LSU, the guy just added another award to be put on the mantle. Burrow hasn’t played for LSU since January, yet he was named the James J. Corbett Award winner on Friday, which goes out to the best amateur athlete in the state of Louisiana. It’s still good to be Joe.
All Joe Burrow does is win college football awards because he’s the best!
The really cool part of taking home the Corbett Award is Burrow isn’t a native son of Louisiana. He hails from The Plains, Ohio, as he spent his childhood primarily in Athens watching his father Jimmy Burrow serve on Frank Solich’s Ohio Bobcats coaching staff as defensive coordinator.
“I still can’t believe how everything came together for me at LSU,” said Burrow, via The Advocate. “I had the opportunity to join an amazing team and together we reached and surpassed all of our goals. The state of Louisiana embraced me along the way and became a second home to me.”
“To be recognized as the top athlete in the state is a tremendous honor and I want to thank my teammates and coaches as well as everyone who supported me.”
And how can anyone tell the story of Burrow without mentioning his favorite college head coach Ed Orgeron? Coach O believed in the former Ohio State backup so much he asked him if he wanted to start some games in the SEC. Together, Burrow, Orgeron and LSU football achieved the impossible. We’re so glad they did it together.
“I’ve never been around a player like Joe,” said Orgeron, “and obviously he’s very talented and he’s a leader, but day in and day out, he’s the same guy. Very focused. Focused on the task at hand. It’s about execution and winning and being great. The guy is a perfectionist. It does rub off on our football team. He’s an outstanding leader.”
Though Burrow will never play another snap for LSU, his status as a Louisiana legend will never change. Burrow has a tremendous opportunity to be the best quarterback in Bengals franchise history. Though none are in Canton, this franchise has given us excellent players like Ken Anderson, Boomer Esiason, Carson Palmer and Andy Dalton over the years. It’s his turn to win big.
If there are any more awards to honor Burrow for what he did in 2019, we’d so welcome them.
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