Joe Shiesty, Joe Cool, Joe Burrrrrrow… Joey Big Brains?
Ok, I made the last one up, but according to former LSU head coach, the legendary Ed Orgeron, it only took one meeting with Joe Burrow f0r him to know that the 22 year old quarterback was the smartest man in the room at LSU. Coach O, all the other coaches in Tiger program, and right there in that recruiting meeting, he knew that Joe would be the quarterback to lead their team to the promised land.
And he did… Burrow and an LSU Tigers team that featured Ja’Marr Chase and Justin Jefferson at WR, as well as a handful of first round picks the following year: K’Lavon Chaisson, Patrick Queen, Clyde Edwards-Helaire… went on to have a perfect season in 2019, and dominated in the National Championship. They beat Clemson 42 to 25.
A couple years ago, ahead of the Cincinnati Bengals Super Bowl tilt with the Los Angeles Rams, Coach O sat down for an interview with Dan Patrick, and got to talking about when he was recruiting Joe Burrow. Dan asked Coach O when he realized Joe Burrow had that “it” factor that we’re all seeing play out before our very eyes right now.
It was back during his recruiting visit… but it wasn’t on the field. It was in the film room…
“He tells me, ‘coach I don’t wanna talk to you, I don’t wanna hear your recruiting game… I just wanna talk football and eat crawfish.’ I was kind of frustrated to be honest, I couldn’t get my claws on him… I never had a recruit that didn’t want to talk to the head coach.
We have a football meeting and we had set up some plays that he had run at Ohio State… and all of the sudden we start watching the film, I start asking Joe questions, and I figured out immediately that Joe was the smartest person in the room, including me and all the coaches. And I was happy about that.
And that showed me his football intelligence what I saw in that meeting, that’s what you see today.”
Burrow is featured on Season 2 of the popular Netflix series, Quarterback, which premiered yesterday, July 8th.
The 8-episode series follows Atlanta Falcons QB Kirk Cousins through his disappointing debut with the Falcons, Detroit Lions QB Jared Goff through their stellar 2024-2025 campaign, and Joe, who wound up leading the league in passing by the end of the season, but it wasn’t enough to overcome the Bengals’ early season struggles.
Check out the trailer below:
Landing Adrian Peterson
From 1998 Coach O was hired as the defensive line coach at USC under head coach Pete Carroll, and was later named recruiting coordinator in 2001, and assistant head coach in 2003. After stops at Ole Miss, the New Orleans Saints and Tennessee, Coach O came back to USC in 2010, where he was one of the highest-paid assistant coaches in college football under Lane Kiffin. In 2013, when USC hired Steve Sarkisian instead him to replace Kiffin (he was the interim head coach at the time), he resigned.
Of course, we all know about his time at LSU and the rest is history.
But one of his biggest recruiting moves involved one of the best running backs of all time, Adrian Peterson.
“Man I loved him… we go down to see Adrian, and Adrian had a great relationship. He loved Pete Carroll, I felt like him and I were very tight. I said, ‘well Adrian what is the key to getting you here at USC?’ He said, ‘well coach, my dad is incarcerated and Bob Stoops went to see him.’ Me and Pete Carrol tried to go see him and they wouldn’t let us in.
He said, ‘My dad is able to watch my games where he’s at if I go to Oklahoma.’ I tried to get the guy transferred to Los Angeles… I competed, couldn’t get it done, but I competed.”
Coach O and Pete Carroll literally tried to get his dad switched to a new prison so he could watch his games at USC. Granted, it didn’t work, but it brings a whole new meaning to “by any means necessary.”
