Happy Monday!

As we recover from Super Bowl Sunday and head into another week of Ohio State men’s basketball and offseason football, here’s what I’m thinking about.

And it starts with the game.

He looked like he belonged. For a former Ohio State quarterback, that’s not always a given.

From the days of Art Schlichter in 1982 to Joe Germaine in 1999 to Terrelle Pryor in 2011 and as recently as Dwayne Haskins in 2019, Buckeyes signal callers have not had the best track record in the NFL. It’s something Justin Fields hopes to change, something the people in Chicago saw in spurts when he took over the Bears starting job in the middle of the 2021 season.

But Joe Burrow was different.

He didn’t find his major successes until he left Columbus, earning his stripes with Ed Orgeron and Joe Brady at LSU. But in the eyes of Ohio State, in the eyes of head coach Ryan Day, Burrow is a success story, a prime example of what development in his room can turn into.

In Los Angeles Sunday night, Burrow was poised. Despite constant pressure from a Rams defense that seemed it was straight out of Madden 2018, with guys like Von Miller and Aaron Donald wreaking havoc on the outside of the Bengals’ offensive line, Burrow was accurate and calm, putting the ball in the hands of the receivers that gave him success all season long when he had the time to.

Was he perfect? No, but he has the time to become that next time. Because there seems like there will be a next time.

And like I said Sunday, that’s all that Ohio State needs. Burrow’s a Buckeye success story, something they never have really had at the quarterback position at the next level.

It’s what they hope to see from Fields in the near future, but it’s a clear picture to recruits of: “This is what you can turn into if you chose to be developed by Day.”

Read the rest of the column here.