Is it OK for Ohio State Fans to Claim Joe Burrow as a Buckeye?
With the NFL Draft only days away, and with Heisman winner Joe Burrow almost certain to go No. 1 overall, it's an opportune time to settle a lingering territorial dispute.
Do Ohio State fans have any rightful claim on Joe Burrow as a Buckeye?
Well, sure, a legion of scarlet-and-gray loyalists will say, because Burrow started his college football career at OSU and has an Ohio State degree.
Case closed.
Ahhh, not so fast, my friend.
The matter to whom Joe Burrow belongs is much more complex than that.
Burrow, of course, is the property of LSU because he led the Tigers to a 15-0 record and national championship in 2019.
The Tigers' claim is indisputable.
But is it total and exclusive?
Ohio State fans, former head coach Urban Meyer, and even current coach Ryan Day, have not renounced their claim and don't seem inclined to do so.
After all, Burrow played more years (3) at OSU than he did at LSU (2).
Burrow grew up in Athens, about 60 miles from Columbus, and Ohio State was the only football powerhouse (sorry Boston College, Vanderbilt, Iowa State) to offer him a scholarship.
Right about now is when the LSU faction in the court room stands and says, "Irrelevant, your honor. Ohio State may have recruited and signed Joe Burrow, but it chose Dwayne Haskins over him when it had the chance to make him the starting quarterback."
That is the truth, but it's not the whole truth.
Burrow had the inside lane to the backup job behind J.T. Barrett in the fall of 2017 when a broken hand via an on-rushing defender's helmet opened the way for Haskins to get second-team snaps.
Giving an arm talent like Haskins access to the stage, with Ohio State's skill positions as supporting actors, was like giving a day-trader inside information of a coming corporate merger.
Haskins wasn't wasting that chance, and he most assuredly did not.
When Barrett got injured in the midst of the Michigan game, with OSU trailing in the second half, later that year, Haskins came off the bench and guided the team to three straight scores and a victory.
Burrow might as well have transferred right then. He was never beating out Haskins because he was never going to get the chance to trump that ace.
Fans knew it. Meyer knew it. Haskins knew it and Burrow knew it.
Nevertheless, Burrow struck around and competed throughout the following spring until Meyer confirmed Haskins as the leader in the clubhouse for Barrett's job after the Scarlet and Gray scrimmage.
It didn't matter that Meyer made that confession with all the joy of a condemned man striding to the guillotine, because everyone knew it meant Burrow -- soon to have his degree in hand -- would be bound for greener pastures.
Hello, Baton Rouge...and hello, Hollywood ending.
In Burrow's best year at Ohio State, his redshirt freshman season, he completed 22-of-26 passes for 226 yards and two touchdowns.
Last season at LSU, Burrow threw for more yards than his 2016 season total in each of the Tigers' 15 games.
He threw for more touchdowns than the two he compiled in both his years at Ohio State in 14 of LSU's 15 games.
Hence, Tigers' fans would not be unjustified arguing that OSU had a Kentucky Derby winner in Burrow and saddled him for a claiming race.
Except that, OSU fans could counter, that once Burrow departed, the Buckeyes sent Haskins in 2018 and Justin Fields in 2019 to the starting gate and reaped back-to-back 13-1 seasons, consecutive undisputed Big Ten championshipos, a Rose Bowl title and a College Football Playoff berth.
About the only thing missing on that resume is a Heisman Trophy and a national championship.
Um, hmmm, well, when you put it that way.
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