Just two years ago, Joe Burrow was a backup quarterback at Ohio State who couldn’t beat out incumbent starter JT Barrett. The Athens, Ohio native then found an opportunity at LSU with head coach Ed Orgeron and took it, a risk which ultimately led Burrow to winning the Heisman trophy on Saturday night.
“I’m forever grateful for you,” an emotional Burrow told Orgeron in his acceptance speech.
It's official: Joe Burrow is your 2019 Heisman winner 🔥
(📍@NissanUSA) pic.twitter.com/FFTKwnVJV1
— ESPN (@espn) December 15, 2019
He received 90.7% of the first-place votes, breaking Troy Smith’s 2006 record of 86.7%. Burrow beat out Ohio State’s Justin Fields and Chase Young, and Oklahoma’s Jalen Hurts by 1,846 total points, the largest margin of victory in history.
Burrow led all of college football with 48 touchdowns in 2019 and became the second Tiger in school history to receive the Heisman, joining Billy Cannon, who won the award in 1959.
His stellar play has catapulted LSU into the No. 1 ranking this season, as they went undefeated and knocked off arch rival Alabama along the way to an SEC Championship.
LSU will host No. 4 Oklahoma in the Peach Bowl on Dec. 28 in the College Football Playoff semifinal. Burrow will have the opportunity to win one more trophy for the Tigers before going to the next level, where he is sure to be one of the first quarterbacks off the board.
