Sports

Joe Burrow wears No. 9, but could be No. 1 in a much bigger way

Matt Zemek Dec 29, 2019
Burrow -- https://crier.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/USATSI_13846225.jpg

Joe Burrow could be No. 1 in a much bigger way…

The title of this column is meant to make you think, after Burrow threw SEVEN touchdown passes (very nearly matching the amount of incomplete passes he threw: 10) in the LSU Tigers’ Peach Bowl rout of the Oklahoma Sooners in a lopsided College Football Playoff semifinal.

Could Burrow become No. 1 in the sense that he could win a national championship? Yes.

Could Burrow become No. 1 in the sense that he will be the obvious No. 1 pick in the 2020 NFL Draft? Yes.

Am I referring to “No. 1” in either of those ways, however? No.

I am referring to the idea that Burrow, who is already the No. 1 college football player for 2019 as the Heisman Trophy winner, could forge the best individual season by a quarterback in the 150-year history of college football.

Some would even say he already has.

Hyperbolic? I don’t think so. Let’s consider the context here.

The 2010s are about to end. The season long accepted as the best season by a quarterback in the 2010s came in the first year of the decade. Cam Newton of Auburn made football look very simple — like a video game — in that 2010 campaign. Marcus Mariota of Oregon made very few mistakes in his shimmering 2014 Heisman Trophy season, but Cam Newton set the bar higher in 2010.

Newton’s signature quality as a quarterback — which he carried into the NFL and used to catapult the Carolina Panthers to Super Bowl 50 four years ago — was that he played quarterback like a linebacker, much as Brett Favre did. However, Newton was far faster and stronger than Favre was. Favre was tough, but Cam Newton was a tough physical specimen. There’s a difference.

As you can see if you checked the link above to Newton’s 2010 stats, the man was a joke. He threw for nearly 3,000 passing yards AND rushed for almost 1,600 yards that year. He had a great QB season and a great running back season, all in one. It was ridiculous, much like the other especially transcendent quarterback season of the 21st century, Vince Young’s 2005 romp for Texas, which ended with the 2006 Rose Bowl masterpiece against USC. That 2006 Rose Bowl display by Young is regarded by many as the greatest individual-game performance in college football history. That Rose Bowl is also viewed by many as the best college football game ever played, adjusted for all the circumstances. (I agree that Young’s performance is the best ever. I’m less convinced that 2006 Rose Bowl was the best game of all time. The 1984 Orange Bowl between Miami and Nebraska makes a strong case.)

One needs to realize — when assessing the best quarterback seasons in college football history — that college football was a running back-dominated sport through the mid-1980s. College football passing offenses had evolved in small pockets of the country (Brigham Young in the early 1980s, for instance), but we hadn’t yet seen passing-focused offenses proliferate and dominate the way they do today. Steve Spurrier hadn’t yet overthrown the Southeastern Conference’s age-old reliance on defense and special teams. That didn’t occur until the early 1990s. In 1985, when an iconic college football running back, Bo Jackson, won the Heisman Trophy, it was still a running back’s world in this sport. College football didn’t have many statistically overwhelming seasons from quarterbacks before then. Vince Young and Cam Newton exist on a relatively small short list of all-time-great QB seasons.

If Young and Newton set a high standard for dual-threat quarterbacks who could compile absurd amounts of rushing yards in addition to considerable amounts of passing yards, Joe Burrow has redefined the pure passer.

Burrow isn’t bad as a runner. Like Joe Montana, he can scoot when needed, and he senses running lanes when they appear. Moreover, in this Peach Bowl against Oklahoma and his previous game against Georgia on December 7 (the SEC Championship Game), Burrow made a ridiculous long throw on the dead run. He is far more than a dropback quarterback who plants his feet and makes an in-rhythm throw (though he can make those throws in his sleep).

Yet, as nimble and agile as Burrow is as a runner and someone who can make plays outside the pocket, he is a remarkably potent dart-thrower. The statistical log for Burrow shows how much of a point-scoring machine he has become. He has thrown 55 touchdown passes and just six interceptions. He has thrown for over 5,200 yards, making him one of only 13 men to eclipse 5,000 passing yards in a college football season. Of those 13 men, only two — Burrow is one, and Anthony Gordon of Washington State is the other — have represented a Power Five conference school other than Texas Tech. (Texas Tech has several men on the list.)

How important has Gordon’s 2019 season been at Washington State? The Cougars lost more games than they won. Burrow has his team 14-0 and about to play for the national championship against Clemson on January 13, 2020.

Anyone who watches football knows that passing yards can be the ultimate empty-calorie statistic. When teams fall behind by 21 or 28 points, they have throw on every play. Defenses play “prevent defense,” allowing teams to get yardage in the middle of the field in exchange for allowing the clock to drain away. Quarterbacks can pile on yards this way, and a lot of the quarterbacks on the list above (from Texas Tech, Houston and Hawaii) did just that.

The greatness of Joe Burrow lies precisely in the fact that he has thrown for an absurd number of yards… but not when trailing. Every yard translates into a meaningful touchdown for a powerful college football team which has won all 14 games it has played.

Joe Burrow represents the perfect marriage between massive statistical output and significant production which has carried his team to victory, achievement, and prominence. A season doesn’t get much more complete than that.

When I say that Joe Burrow has a chance to compete the No. 1 quarterback season in college football history, I am referring not just to everything Burrow has already done. He now gets to face Clemson — the defending national champion and the program with a starting quarterback (Trevor Lawrence) who is 25-0 in his collegiate career. If Burrow dominates Clemson and wins the national title, would it be the slightest bit hyperbolic to call Burrow’s season the best by a quarterback in the 150-year history of college football?

You tell me. I dare you to tell me I’d be wrong.

Matt Zemek

Matt Zemek has written about tennis professionally since 2014 for multiple outlets. He is currently the editor of tennisaccent.com and the co-manager of Tennis With An Accent with Saqib Ali. Tennis With An Accent blends Saqib Ali's podcasts with written coverage of professional tennis. The TWAA Podcast hosted Darren Cahill earlier this year. The podcast is distributed by Red Circle and is available on Stitcher, Google Podcasts, and Apple Podcasts. See Matt's pinned tweet on his Twitter page for links to the TWAA Podcast. Matt is based in Phoenix and thinks the Raptors winning the NBA title was awesome. Saqib will be covering Montreal for Tennis With An Accent.

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