Ohio State Football: The case for Joe Burrow starting in 2018

The Ohio State football team had some hard decisions to make concerning the quarterback position back in 2018. They had to choose between Dwayne Haskins and Joe Burrow for the starting job. Complicating matters worse is that Burrow got hurt and that limited his ability to get reps.

Yesterday, I laid out the case that choosing Haskins was the right choice. Today, I’m going to lay out the case that Meyer made the wrong decision and should have chosen Burrow to start in 2018. I have several points that will help me make this case.

My first point is that while Haskins was a Heisman Finalist in 2018, Burrow actually won the Heisman in 2019 in one of the greatest college football seasons ever. He threw for 5,671 yards, 60 touchdowns, and completed a ridiculous 76% of his passes. He won a national title that year.

Of course, this is the year after Haskins was already chosen. Burrow’s 2018 wasn’t that good. But instead of blaming Burrow, the true culprit is his offensive coordinator. Steve Ensminger was his coordinator and has only been an offensive coordinator twice in his college career.

Ensminger was a coordinator in 2018, with Burrow, and 2020. LSU finished 69th and 39th in offense respectively. Conversely, Ryan Day was the offensive coordinator in 2018. Since that time, Day has never had an offense finish lower than 7th in the country.

If you give Burrow Ryan Day as a coordinator in 2018, I find it impossible to believe he wouldn’t have put up similar numbers to Haskins. Once they got Joe Brady at LSU in 2019, that’s when Burrow put up those historic numbers. He just needed someone who was competent calling the offense.

Choosing Burrow would have given the Buckeyes two years with him as well. Sure, they wouldn’t have had Justin Fields. But Fields never won a national title like Burrow did. The Ohio State football program would have been ridiculously good both years.

My final point for choosing Burrow is how they have played since 2018. Haskins had one year with Day. Since then, he was a first-round pick that flamed out with his team and is currently the third-string quarterback for the Steelers. He’s never come close to replicating his numbers in 2018.

Meanwhile, Burrow has flourished ever since he was out of the clutches of Ensminger. He won a national title, was the number one overall pick, and is now playing in an AFC Championship Game next week. Burrow had one horrible OC and was able to fix things since then. Haskins had one unbelievable OC and hasn’t done anything since.

In the end, it’s an impossible choice that Meyer had to make. He made the one that he thought gave the Buckeyes the best chance to win at the time. Haskins certainly wasn’t to blame for the loss in 2018, but Burrow’s running ability would have given that offense a new level of execution.