Excerpt from the Dayton Daily News
By Tom Archdeacon
Tanner Holden didn’t want to be Joe Burrow.
That’s not a reference to the LSU quarterback who transferred in and just had a Heisman Trophy-winning season as he led the Tiger to a 15-0 record and a national championship while throwing for a whopping 5,671 yards and an NCAA record 60 touchdowns.
No, the Joe Burrow in this comparison is the guy who spent his initial three years of college football at Ohio State, where he was redshirted his first season and then was relegated to two seasons of mop-up duty as a back-up. He played in only 10 games and threw for just two touchdowns.
That prompted him to depart Columbus for Baton Rouge and Cajun-up his name, making it “Burreaux” on Senior Night, a move that endeared him even more to Tigers fans.
As for Holden — the 6-foot-6 freshman basketball player at Wright State — he was recruited to play football at Ohio State, as well. Michigan also was interested in him, as were several other schools.
At Wheelersburg High School in southeastern Ohio, he had caught the winning touchdown pass in overtime of the 2017 Division V state title game, was named the state’s Co-Offensive Player of the Year in Division V and was a finalist — already as a junior — for Ohio’s Mr. Football.
Urban Meyer, then OSU’s coach, even sat him down before the Buckeyes’ game with UNLV and asked him to envision playing for the scarlet and gray.
“Oh, I gave it a look for sure,” Holden recalled Thursday night after scoring a team-high 16 points and grabbing nine rebounds to lead Wright State to a 75-62 victory over Cleveland State at the Nutter Center.
