LSU Football: Max Johnson gets compared to Joe Burrow by Ed Orgeron

LSU Football will lean heavily on sophomore quarterback Max Johnson in 2021.

Johnson is the Tigers’ starting quarterback after Myles Brennan suffered an arm injury that required surgery this week.

There’s a good chance that Johnson was going to be LSU’s starting quarterback regardless of Brennan’s injury. The two quarterbacks were entrenched in an intense battle that was nowhere close to being decided.

“I think Max and Myles and the whole team were looking forward to the competition,” said Tigers head coach Ed Orgeron on Friday. “It was very close and we didn’t know who was going to be the starting quarterback.”

Johnson was viewed by some as the favorite after leading LSU to two straight wins (over Florida and Ole Miss) to close the 2020 season.

LSU football head coach Ed Orgeron sees some Joe Burrow in Max Johnson

Joe Burrow is the best to ever do it at LSU. So it’s inevitable that every starting quarterback is going to be compared to legendary former Tiger.

On Friday, Orgeron admitted that he sees some Burrow-like qualities in Johnson.

“He’s (Johnson) a competitor,” said Orgeron. “He’s serious. He reminds me of Joe in a lot of ways. The intangibles, the things he does, the work ethic, he wants to be number one.”

“He doesn’t say much,” added Orgeron. “There’s not a lot of joking around with him. He’s always doing well in the classroom, always competing in the weight room, always competing to be first.”

It’s easy to suggest that there will never be another Joe Burrow. And maybe that’s true.

But at the same time, why can’t there be another Joe Burrow? Why can’t Johnson be better than Burrow?

While it may not be fair to put those kinds of expectations on Johnson, it’s also not fair to put a ceiling on his potential. Johnson could easily be a legendary quarterback at LSU. He has the opportunity, he just needs to capitalize on it.