Ohio State Football: A Buckeye won the Heisman Trophy

The Heisman Trophy ceremony took place on Saturday and despite neither of the two Ohio State football finalists winning it a Buckeye still won.

The Ohio State football team had two Heisman finalists on Saturday as quarterback Justin Fields and defensive end Chase Young were one of four finalists. Neither one of them won but a true Buckeye in Joe Burrow still won the award.

Burrow was on the Ohio State football team from 2015 to 2017 and saw limited action as he threw for 226 yards and two touchdowns in 2016 and 61 yards on 11 attempts in 2017. After Dwayne Haskins became the Buckeyes’ starting quarterback for the 2018 season, Burrow transferred to LSU.

After that the rest is history as he threw for 2,894 yards and 16 touchdowns last season and then improved drastically this year, throwing for 4,715 yards and 48 touchdowns this year. Those stats, in addition to LSU’s 13-0 record, are the reason he is this year’s Heisman Trophy winner.

Despite him being an LSU Tiger now, Burrow is a Buckeye at heart.

He went to high school at Athens High School in The Plains, Ohio where he led his team to three straight playoff appearances and the school’s first seven playoff wins in school history, according to the Highland County Press.

Burrow then made sure to shoutout Ohio State and southeast Ohio in his acceptance speech.

"“I’m just so thankful for LSU and Ohio State,” Burrow said in his speech, according to Eleven Warriors. “Playing at two of the best programs in the country. Great coaches, both places. My journey, I wouldn’t have traded it for anything in the world.”"

He then said this about southeast Ohio, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer.

"“Coming from southeast Ohio, it’s a very, very impoverished area. The poverty rate is almost two times the national average,” Burrow said. “There are so many people there that don’t have a lot, and I’m up here for all those kids in Athens and Athens County that go home to not a lot of food on the table, hungry after school. You guys can be up here, too.”"

This ultimately led to $100,000 being donated to the Athens County Food Pantry.

Burrow is only 23-years-old, but he has already had a lasting impact on southeast Ohio and the entire state of Ohio in general. He is a true Buckeye.

Despite Fields and Young not winning the award, we can take solace in the fact that Burrow still won it. And who knows, he could be playing in Ohio again sometime soon when the NFL Draft takes place this spring.