Joe Burrow

Joe Burrow is an American football quarterback for the LSU Tigers.

Early years
Burrow is the son of former University of Nebraska, NFL and CFL player Jimmy Burrow, who went on to a coaching career that lasted nearly 40 years. The elder Burrow, whose last coaching position was defensive coordinator at Ohio University for more than a decade, retired after the 2018 season in part to be able to see all of Joe's games in his final college season. According to a 2019 Sports Illustrated story, "The Burrow athletic lineage dates back nearly a century." In the 1940s, one of his grandmothers set a Mississippi state high school record with an 82-point game in basketball. His paternal grandfather played basketball at Mississippi State, an uncle played football at Ole Miss, and two older brothers also played football at Nebraska.

The SI story noted that he first attended a sporting event, an older brother's football game, when he was 5 days old, and at age 6 he attended the 2002 Rose Bowl in which his father served as a Nebraska assistant and another brother played. Not long after, he began playing in youth football leagues. Unlike his father, uncle, and brothers, who all played on defense, Burrow started out as a quarterback because his first youth team had no one else who could play the position.

Burrow attended Athens High School in The Plains, Ohio. During his career, he passed for 11,416 yards with 157 passing touchdowns and rushed for 2,067 yards with 27 rushing touchdowns. Burrow committed to Ohio State University to play college football.

College career
After redshirting his first year at Ohio State in 2015, Burrow spent the next two years as a backup to J. T. Barrett. Over the two years, he played in 10 games, completing 29 of 39 passes for 287 yards and 2 touchdowns. Realizing that Dwayne Haskins would be named starting quarterback at Ohio State, Burrow transferred to Louisiana State University (LSU) in May 2018. In his first year at LSU, he was named the starting quarterback. Burrow finished the regular season with 2,500 yards passing, 12 touchdowns, and 4 interceptions.