Devin Brown thinks of Joe Burrow as an Ohio State quarterback.
Yes, Burrow found the majority of his success when he didn’t don the Scarlet and Gray, winning the Heisman Trophy and a National Championship with LSU, leading to being the No. 1 overall pick in the 2020 NFL Draft.
But that doesn’t matter to the 2022 Ohio State quarterback.
“He’s mentioned that he wouldn’t be where he is without being here,” Brown said.
Brown looks up to Burrow, the way he carries himself, his moxie and mentality. Brown wants Burrow’s swag and demeanor on the football field, a mentality that takes confidence in himself and in the players around him.
It’s something the Ohio State early enrollee only really got a hold of recently, hyping his teammates up in his final games at Corner Canyon High School in Draper, Utah, talking trash to defenders in between plays.
“That really just builds an energy around your team and guys really won’t get after it unless you’re getting after it,” Brown said. “You have to show your team you're really about it.”
Brown sees that in Burrow, the example of what he strives to be in an Ohio State uniform. And on Sunday, it’s something he will watch the Cincinnati Bengals quarterback do one more time, leading his team onto the field at Super Bowl LVI against the Los Angeles Rams.
Eight different college teams have multiple representatives on the Bengals roster, including three from Clemson, Florida and LSU, including Burrow.
But no college exceeds Ohio State’s four: defensive end Sam Hubbard, safety Vonn Bell, cornerback Eli Apple and offensive tackle Isaiah Prince, not counting Burrow, an Ohio State grad, and linebacker Keandre Jones, who transferred from the Buckeyes to Maryland as a junior.
“I think it's exciting for the whole state of Ohio, just to have the Bengals in the Super Bowl. Certainly the story of really where they've been the last few years, where they were last year, even this year,” Ohio State head coach Ryan Day said. “They feel like they've been underdogs the whole way. And now here they are in the Super Bowl, so, I'm so excited for that whole organization.
“And certainly all the guys who have played, in particular Joe and everything he's kind of been through with the injury last year. Just his whole journey has been tremendous to be someone to watch and enjoy and cheer him on. But then there's a lot of other Buckeyes on that team, Sam Hubbard, Vonn Bell and Eli Apple, I mean, there's a whole bunch of them played really, really well. So, how exciting to come back to your home state and bring your team to a Super Bowl.”
That’s all Day needs.
He doesn’t need the Bengals to win. He doesn’t need a 400-yard and four-touchdown game from Burrow like he had in his final two regular-season games against the Baltimore Ravens and Kansas City Chiefs. He doesn’t need an interception by Bell like the safety had in overtime of the AFC Championship against the Chiefs against quarterback Patrick Mahomes.
The Bengals gives Ohio State enough recruiting fuel just by taking the field Sunday, the same fuel that made players like cornerback Ryan Turner want to become a Buckeye in the first place.
“So it’s like watching corners, in the NFL, they always show what college they went to. So you see a corner like ‘The Ohio State University,’” Turner said. “It’s like he went to Ohio State, he went to Ohio State, he went to Ohio State, like it’s crazy.”
For the Buckeyes, this path from Columbus to the NFL is nothing new.
SInce 2010, Ohio State has had 20 first-round draft picks including two in 2014 (LB Ryan Shazier, CB Bradley Roby), five in 2016 (DE Joey Bosa, RB Ezekiel Elliott, Apple, OT Taylor Decker, LB Darron Lee), three in 2017 (CB Marshon Lattimore, S Malik Hooker, CB Gareon Conley), two in 2018 (CB Denzel Ward, OL Billy Price), two in 2019 (DE Nick Bosa, QB Dwayne Haskins) and three in 2020 (DE Chase Young, CB Jeff Okudah, CB Damon Arnette).
It’s something Ohio State has come to embrace, even with its 2022 coaching staff, bringing in Tim Walton, who spent each season since 2009 either as a defensive backs coach or a defensive coordinator in the NFL, as its secondary and cornerbacks coach, joining a room filled with players who want to get to where he was for the past 13 years.
“You can make them better, you can help them grow and you can help them see that it’s a chance that the teaching can help them achieve the goals that they want, I think they will be open to listen,” Walton said.
Immediately when he joined Ohio State’s staff as the safeties coach, former Cincinnati cornerbacks coach Perry Eliano saw the power of that list of NFL first-round draft picks come alive even when he just entered a school or a home donning an Ohio State logo.
“Guys want to be the best,” Eliano said. “Guys want to be All-Americans, guys want the opportunity to win the Jim Thorpe Award, guys want to win championships, guys want the opportunity to be first-round, projected first-round draft picks. So for me, being able to go into schools with the Block O on your chest, knowing you have the opportunity to win a national championship year in and year out and be the best of the best is definitely an added advantage.”
That’s why Brown decommitted from USC, making the trek from Arizona and Utah to Columbus, Ohio.
He wants to follow in the footsteps of Burrow.
He wants to play in a Super Bowl.
He wants to be next in line be the next great Ohio State graduate in the NFL
“That’s the end goal for sure,” Brown said.
