Joe Burrow’s first introduction to new LSU passing game coordinator Joe Brady came through one of his best friends at Ohio State, J.T. Barrett, who worked with Brady with the New Orleans Saints.

“I called J.T. up and he said, ‘You guys are going to be best friends, he was my guy, I love him, you guys are going to fit really well together,'” Burrow recalled Barrett saying in an interview with ESPN’s Marty Smith.

Next, Burrow said LSU players arrived in early January and offensive coordinator Steve Ensminger delivered the day one install with the playbook.

“I was flipping through it, ‘Coach, where did all these plays come from?’ He was like, ‘We’re changing it up. We’re letting you run the show,'” Burrow said. “That was the moment I knew this was going to be a really good season for us.”

Smith asked Burrow about what that told him about the coaching staff’s belief in him.

“It was good to see the coaching staff put that trust in me because I started to click a little bit at the end of last year and I think they realized that I was the guy that they thought I could be when they recruited me,” Burrow said. “Then we had a really good spring and a really good fall camp and it showed them that they were right.”

Burrow has proven to be a Heisman Trophy contender and a high draft pick in the NFL Draft next spring largely because of this season as many have called LSU coach Ed Orgeron hiring Brady from the Saints as the most influential move leading into this season.

Burrow will get his toughest test of the season this week at Alabama at 3:30 p.m. ET on CBS.