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The Truth: Joe Burrow Wins a Close QB Contest

by Cody Worsham
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The Truth: Joe Burrow Wins a Close QB Contest

Welcome to The Truth, an LSU football notebook every Monday – known as “Tell the Truth Monday” around here – after head coach Ed Orgeron and the Tigers meet with the media.

Joe Burrow will be LSU’s starter at quarterback when the Tigers take on Miami Sunday in Arlington. Ed Orgeron declined to make that announcement to the media until he made it to the team this afternoon, but the decision came Monday morning in a meeting with Burrow, Myles Brennan, Steve Ensminger, and Orgeron. The Ohio State transfer will get his first reps as a Tiger in Sunday’s matchup.

  • The battle was close. Really close. One quarterback got 428 reps in the fall, while the other got 427. The battle “seesawed back and forth last week,” Orgeron said. “Either quarterback could have won out.”
  • Everything was graded: “I thought Steve did a great job of giving them equal reps, graded the things we wanted to see our quarterbacks do on a daily basis,” said Orgeron. “Every situation was given a grade. It’s marked down on a sheet of paper. Percentages. Our players saw it. They received the grades every day, so it was obvious to them.”
  • Both have earned the confidence of the staff and the players. Burrow will get most of the reps this week. But: “If he doesn’t perform well, we have no problem putting in the second string quarterback.”

Burrow has impressed since his arrival this summer. Jonathan Giles said Burrow called the receivers to run routes his first day on campus. “He won a lot of guys over with that,” Giles said.

Foster Moreau said Burrow integrated himself immediately in workouts.

  • “He showed up his first day on the conditioning test. He wasn’t required to run it. He could’ve run with the freshmen and the new guys when they got in. But he came in and ran, and he won almost every sprint. He’s an exceptional quarterback, a very hard worker. You can tell he’s been raised the right way. He has the right mindset about things.”
  • Said defensive lineman Rashard Lawrence: “He’s a guy that’s worked very hard. Competitor, he came in from day one and competed. He’s worked his butt off.”

Don’t count out Brennan, though. He has picked up where he left off last fall, when he nearly won the starting job as a true freshman, and Moreau won’t blink if Brennan’s name is called this year.

  • “Myles, he’s a young, reserved, quiet guy, but, God, he can throw the football.”
  • More Moreau: “I liked how he was unwavering with something bad happened. He was always confident, always steady, like ships going through a storm, he’d just take a breath and come into the huddle and it wouldn’t affect him.
  • “He’ll have a bad play, everybody does, but I see the balls he throws in camp that are so close to perfect, and he’ll be upset at himself, because it could’ve been a half foot more outside. Ball’s caught, receiver’s scored a touchdown, everyone’s excited, but he wants that ball six inches more outside. He’s so focused on being perfect. He’s so focused on the details. I love that aspect of his game.”