LSU takes chance with OSU’s discard
Published 5:20 pm Wednesday, May 23, 2018
Scooter Hobbs
Good thing Joe Burrow didn’t wait another week to decide to further his football education by transferring from Ohio State to LSU.
Apparently nearby Cincinnati had been the favorite for his services and, as word spread that he was looking around, any number of big-name programs surely would have taken a flier on him.
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But another seven days for the tall tales to grow and the fans’ hand-wringing to morph into the critical stage, and his legend might have had the NFL swooping in to take him off everybody’s hands right now.
And maybe it will work out for Burrow and LSU. No reason to think it won’t.
This whole grad-transfer thing — Burrow is immediately eligible at LSU with two years to play because he fast-tracked his way to a valid degree from Ohio State — has the potential to be as silly in late spring as the high school recruiting circus is in the winter.
This is just the latest example. Surely Burrow knows by now that he is being counted to be LSU’s savior at the position.
But at the risk of raining on this parade, it is worth noting that the reason Burrow was school-shopping was that he was not going to be the starter for the Buckeyes next season.
He lost a battle for that job in the spring when a Mr. Dwayne Haskins won the job.
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And how does that work, anyway? Does Ohio State get more spring practice days? LSU’s quarterback decisions are slower than road construction. The Tigers couldn’t pick a clear-cut starter in the spring even if it was Drew Brees battling Anthony Jennings.
But I guess Ohio State was pretty comfortable with Haskins.
That’s not necessarily an indictment of Burrow, of course. Ohio State is one of those schools that always seems to have an almost embarrassing surplus of quarterbacks hanging around.
Which hasn’t been much of a problem at LSU.
But the zeal with which head coach Ed Orgeron went after luring Burrow does suggest that LSU’s latest quarterback quandary is — was? — just as scrambled in mediocrity as the sloppy spring game made it look.
Big surprise — Orgeron wasn’t ready to name a starter from among Myles Brennan, Lowell Narcisse and Justin McMillan.
He tried to put a positive spin on it, insisting that what we saw in the spring game wasn’t what he saw in all those closed practices, and all brought something to table that dictated more watching.
Going after Burrow suggests otherwise. It hints that Orgeron had doubts that any of them were ready to be the big entreé.
You can’t have too many quarterbacks?
Probably not. But this wasn’t about depth.
In sheer numbers, it will probably be a wash.
Turning the quarterback “battle,” if there is one, into a foursome probably means that one of three already on campus will be transferring out of LSU for the same reason that Burrow left OSU.
And, if Burrow proves to be as big of an upgrade as is assumed, then that’s fine.
That’s the way the new grad-transfer food chain works, particularly at quarterback, where if you’re not starting, you’re probably departing.
This isn’t Little League. Feelings get hurt.
And it could work out for LSU.
Since fifth-year senior Matt Flynn patiently waited his turn and led LSU to the 2007 national championship, what little success the Tigers have had at quarterback has come from transfers.
Well, two, anyway — Zach Mettenberger and Danny Etling.
Those were, however, slightly different situations.
Burrow isn’t going to LSU with the idea of backing up anybody. He could do that at Ohio State.
And, no, don’t believe what you hear during recruiting. Coaches don’t promise starting positions to anybody. For sure, not at LSU’s level.
If Burrow handles it correctly, and assuming he provides a noticeable upgrade under center, he’ll be accepted.
Bottom line: college players want the best chance to win.
But Burrow has to become an LSU teammate before he can become a trusted quarterback/team leader.
He won’t have much time. He’ll have to accelerate that process as much as he did his Ohio State graduation.
Mettenberger and Etling were different. Both cooled their heels for a year at LSU before taking the starting roles.
It’s worth wondering what LSU’s BCS runner-up team in 2011 might have done if Mettenberger hadn’t, by all accounts, been content to let seniors Jordan Jefferson and Jarrett Lee have their time in the limelight instead of aggressively pushing them for the position.
Etling had no choice. He had to sit out a year after transferring from Purdue.
This is different.
It has to be handled just right. And when it comes to quarterbacks, LSU’s track record is not good.
But it’s surely worth a shot.
Scooter Hobbs covers LSU athletics. Email him at shobbs@americanpress.com
