Could Joe Burrow Have Done THAT at Nebraska? Could He Do It In The NFL?

It was a great night for some legacy Huskers as Joe Burrow and his LSU Tigers finished an impressive 15-0 season by demolishing Clemson in the National Championship football game. And, once again, the second guessing of Nebraska's pursuit of Burrow reached frantic levels.

You think Joe Burrow would have ever had any interest in playing for Nebraska?

— Kevin Kugler (@kevinkugler) January 14, 2020

It would have been a great story; the four-star son and brother of former players leading Nebraska to greatness. But would it have been the same greatness that we saw in New Orleans?

Probably not.

Burrow had an amazing, record setting senior season at LSU, but let's be honest.  NOBODY saw this coming. Burrow was kind of buried on the depth chart at Ohio State, losing out on the starting job in 2018 to Dwayne Haskins.  So he looked elsewhere, and wound up at LSU.  He had a good, but not exactly great junior season:

57.8% completion percentage, 2,894 yards, 16 touchdown passes, five interceptions, 399 yards rushing, 7 rushing touchdowns.

Decent numbers to be sure.  But for those of you second guessing things, here's what Nebraska's starting quarterback did that same season:

64.6% completion percentage, 2,617 yards, 17 touchdown passes, eight interceptions, 618 yards rushing, 8 rushing touchdowns.

Yep, Adrian Martinez had a better season in 2018.

In 2019, the tables flipped... and boy did they flip.  Martinez played injured all season (requiring surgery in early December) while Burrow found magic when LSU hired passing game coordinator Joe Brady.

The rest is history, and now Burrow, Brady and Ed Orgeron are now living legends on the Bayou.

I get the remorse over Burrow not ending up in Lincoln, but there are reasons.  When Burrow was coming out of high school, Nebraska took a shot at quarterback Lamar Jackson instead. Came up short, but the former Heisman winner chewed up the NFL this season. And Frost could have pursued him two years ago, but chose to stick with Martinez.  It's a decision that looked good up until Burrow went nuts this season while Martinez played hurt.

Hindsight is always 20/20, people.

Time to put the bitterness and hand-wringing aside and congratulate Joe Burrow on an incredible 2019 season.  And then be a little concerned about expectations getting way out of whack as he moves to the NFL.  Former Husker Zac Taylor's Cincinnati Bengals have the first pick in the NFL Draft, and it would be hard to comprehend the Bengals bypassing the Heisman Trophy winning kid that grew up 150 miles away.  But Cincinnati doesn't have the receiver talent that LSU does (though they do have Stanley Morgan and Cethan Carter on the roster), nor do they have an offensive mind like Joe Brady, who reinvented the LSU offense this year.

Football is a team game, and we may learn down the line that Burrow caught lightning in a bottle in Baton Rouge that may not have translated to Lincoln...or eventually Cincinnati.  Or maybe I'll be wrong, but I am worried that the expectations train has long left the station on this one.