One of the few remaining offseason storylines has wrapped up on Friday afternoon as reports have surfaced that former Ohio State quarterback Joe Burrow is headed from Columbus to LSU as a graduate transfer.
The Cincinnati Enquirer’s Tom Groeschen was first to report the news.
Breaking: #OhioState transfer QB Joe Burrow has picked LSU, according to highly-placed #UC source. Had narrowed it to LSU and #Bearcats.
— Tom Groeschen (@TomGroeschen) May 18, 2018
Burrow is immediately eligible in Baton Rouge and has two years of eligibility remaining, joining the program as a redshirt junior after graduating earlier this month from Ohio State. He had previously visited LSU, Cincinnati and North Carolina before narrowing his list to the Tigers and Bearcats, where former OSU assistant Luke Fickell is the head coach.
The dual-threat was rated by most recruiting services as a four-star coming out of high school in Athens, OH where his father Jimmy Burrow is the defensive coordinator at Ohio under Frank Solich. He spent most of the past few years as the backup to J.T Barrett but appeared to lose out a close quarterback battle with fellow Buckeye Dwayne Haskins this spring to be the team’s starter.
The addition of Burrow makes the LSU quarterback competition even more interesting over the coming months and would indicate that Ed Orgeron and his staff are not completely comfortable with how things are going at the spot after spring practice. Junior Justin McMillan, sophomore Myles Brennan and redshirt freshman Lowell Narcisse all took reps over spring but none of the trio seemed to create much separation as they replace current New England Patriot Danny Etling under center for the Tigers.
LSU opens the season with a big game against Miami at AT&T Stadium.