LSU Football: 3 biggest surprises from Tigers’ 2019 season

1. Joe Burrow

Here at headquarters, we aren’t naïve enough to think that Marty McFly’s DeLorean is the only means of time travel. You could get a phone booth from a man from the future named Rufus or ride in a TARDIS with a Doctor. However, you didn’t see this season coming from Joe Burrow unless you had an effective means of time travel.

The redshirt senior from Athens, Ohio, rewrote the LSU’s passing record book and the college football record book. It’s fair to argue he had the single greatest passing season in the history of college football, and it’s not even close.

Take a look at Burrow’s worst games: Completion percentage (63.3 percent in the national title game), yards (293 against Florida — he threw for fewer yards against Georgia Southern, but didn’t play the entire game), touchdowns (1) against Auburn, interceptions (2 against Mississippi), fewest completions (21 against Florida). If you put that stat line together for one game, it would be a solid outing.

The difference is the other parts of the stat line. He threw for five touchdowns against Clemson and he had three incomplete classes against Florida. Burrow threw for 321 yards against Auburn and five touchdowns against Ole Miss. He did not have a bad game all season running an aggressive downfield passing attack in the toughest division in college football. And none of us saw it coming.

Burrow was a four-star coming out of high school, but it was Josh Rosen and Blake Barnett who were the big-time recruits coming out of high school. He was the top quarterback in Ohio in 2015, but a hand injury in 2017 set everything in motion. He knew the writing was one the wall after Dwayne Haskins came to Columbus after three years of sitting behind Braxton Miller, J.T. Barrett and Cardale Jones.

Although Ed Orgeron desperately wanted Burrow to come to LSU, what he did this season was a shocker, to say the least.

His first season in Baton Rouge was not much better statistically than his predecessor Purdue transfer Danny Etling. Burrow completed less than 60 percent of his passes and threw just 16 touchdown passes. The turn was Joe Brady and the RPO offense.

The parallels between what he ran in high school and what Brady brought to Death Valley gave Joe a comfort that he could just play ball. What we saw this season was a one-year turnaround like we’ve never seen before. Ever. Geaux Joe Burreaux.