Prior to the 2018 season, LSU brought in Ohio State graduate transfer QB Joe Burrow. He won the job immediately during the summer, but it wasn’t always a given that he’d be heading to Baton Rouge.

Now that he’s the Heisman Trophy frontrunner in LSU’s new-look offense, things are going great. But, according to FAU coach Lane Kiffin, Burrow wasn’t always sold on the Tigers.

During an appearance on “The Paul Finebaum Show” this week, Kiffin said Burrow had some serious concerns about LSU’s offense (via 247Sports):

“Here’s another crazy story for you — Joe Burrow’s dad played at Nebraska and I think actually played for my dad at Nebraska, and in the process of deciding what he was doing in the transfer, actually talked at length to his dad because he liked LSU,” Kiffin said. “But his concern was, OK, the development of quarterbacks, and Coach O being a defensive guy at the time there — they were kind of struggling on offense. So I had actually had conversations with him about — I talked to Coach O and they were going to change the offense and get a little more open and not be as conservative as LSU over the years, and so I got to watch Joe in that process and saw a kid that had played a little bit, had done pretty well. But the development of him has been unbelievable. He’s just on fire and such a great leader, from what I’ve seen, and has got himself into (a situation where) he’s going to make a lot of money here.”

The hiring of Joe Brady as an offensive assistant has worked wonders for the Tigers, and for Burrow himself.

It’s tough to imagine Burrow playing anywhere else, but if LSU hadn’t been willing to change offensively, that might have been the case.