‘I’ve never said that about anybody’ – Former LSU HC Ed Orgeron makes lofty Joe Burrow comparison to former Tiger recruiting miss
Former LSU head coach Ed Orgeron compares current college quarterback to Joe Burrow
This isn’t breaking news, but the 2019 college football season was a magical one for the LSU Tigers program. Led by head coach Ed Orgeron and legendary quarterback Joe Burrow, the Tigers were able to end the season with a perfect 15-0 season, a National Championship, and arguably the greatest offense in college football history.
The career arc for Burrow was an especially remarkable story, going from a three-year backup with the Ohio State Buckeyes to a solid starter in 2018, and then a legend just a year later. You couldn’t have written a Hollywood script better than that one. It’s a season we all will be talking about for a very, very long time.
Since Burrow was selected with the first overall selection in the 2020 NFL Draft by the Cincinnati Bengals, he has developed into one of the very best quarterbacks in the NFL as well. It all started with that one unbelievable run in Baton Rouge.
That has made comparisons to Burrow, especially on the college level, a pretty irregular thing. There just aren’t that many signal callers that special walking around, especially from an intangible perspective. Despite that, his former college coach, Ed Orgeron made the comparison on a recent episode of Pardon My Take. It was made when asked about who the quarterback he would take if he was starting a college team.
“Arch Manning,” Orgeron explained. “I had an opportunity to go to Texas and speak at the clinic. I watched practice, and we knew Arch Manning as a young kid from Louisiana. He liked Joe Brady. We watched him. I watched this practice, and I’ll say this conservatively. We recruited Garrett (Nussmeier). Garrett is a great player, but Arch is as close to, or maybe as good as Joe (Burrow) as I’ve seen. I’ve never said this about anybody.”
This offseason has been filled with Arch Manning propaganda, and it’s understandable from an overall talent perspective. At 6-4 and 220 pounds, Manning is an outstanding combination of size, arm talent, and athleticism. His last name also doesn’t hurt the hype train at all. A Manning being good is great for the media, ratings, and overall visibility of the college game.
For LSU fans, hearing their former national championship coach with such high praise has to be a strange feeling. A former New Orleans (La.) Isidore Newman star, Manning was a tough loss for the Tigers program back in the 2023 recruiting class. Letting him leave his home state, especially for a fellow SEC program (even though they were still in the Big 12 then) wasn’t ideal.
The Tigers ended up signing Rickie Collins in that particular class, who just lost the starting quarterback job for the Syracuse Orange this week.
Some will roll their eyes at any mention of Manning, and the offseason hype that follows. Yes, he is still a bit of a projection with less than 100 passes thrown in his college career, but it’s hard not to get excited about what he can accomplish with head coach Steve Sarkisian, one of the better offensive minds in the country.
Everyone that has seen Manning perform in person has come away impressed, and pushed back on the opinion that the hype is mostly generated by the media.
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