LSU Football: Ed Orgeron tells great story about Joe Burrow from 2018 season
By Zach Ragan
Former LSU Football head coach Ed Orgeron told a great story on Saturday morning about Joe Burrow and the exact moment that the Tigers became his team.
Orgeron was a guest on a special edition of ESPN’s Sunday NFL Countdown on Saturday to talk about Burrow and his time at LSU.
The former Tigers head coach recalled a story about the vicious hit that Burrow took in the Fiesta Bowl at the end of the 2018 season against UCF (you can see the hit and the aftermath here).
Burrow got absolutely rocked by a defender after throwing a 93-yard pick-six. It looked like Burrow was going to have to come out of the game. In fact, Orgeron was already looking for backup quarterback Myles Brenna to come into the game.
But Burrow was having none of it according to the story from Orgeron.
"Orgeron: “Here’s where I think the turnaround happened. In the Fiesta Bowl, New Year’s Day bowl, big bowl for LSU. We’re playing UCF, they had won a bunch of games in a row. Joe Burrow gets hit. Blindside hit. I call timeout, I wanted a targeting penalty. I said ‘Hey, get the second string quarterback Myles Brennan ready’. And Joe gets up, and he uses a couple of words that I’m going to say on TV. And he said ‘that ain’t happening’. We went down a scored for the next three series. That became his football team.”"
The pick-six put UCF up 14-3. And then the Tigers scored — as Orgeron said — on three straight drives. The Tigers eventually won the game 40-32 and ended UCF’s 25-game winning streak.
Joe Burrow is a different kind of special
It seems like every week we’re hearing new Burrow stories that illustrate his incredible toughness and elite leadership.
It’s not a surprise that he’s immediately turned the Cincinnati Bengals franchise around.
Two years ago, the Bengals won two games. Now they’re one of the hottest teams in the NFL.
The intangibles are what makes Burrow so great. He has a desire to win unlike any player I’ve ever seen.
Next. Ranking LSU's 7 transfer additions. dark
He’s the reason the Tigers dominated in 2019 and he’s the reason the Bengals could be celebrating their first playoff win in 30 years.