By River Gracey |Sports writerAs the confetti settled on Dec. 7 in Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, it became obvious to me what I had just witnessed. It was clear and obvious before the game that the LSU Tigers were the favorite to beat the fourth-ranked Georgia Bulldogs. ESPN had the Tigers as a seven-point favorite just when kickoff started. This game, however, wasn’t about either team. This game was dominated by Joe Burrow, who would go on to win the Heisman Trophy.Burrow is a former transfer quarterback who spent three years at Ohio State (one year a redshirt) before being LSU’s starting quarterback the last two seasons. In 2018, he had a decent year throwing for nearly 3,000 yards and 16 touchdowns while completing nearly 58 percent of his passes. This season, however, has seen Burrow break every LSU offensive school record. He has thrown for 48 touchdowns and 4,715 yards, all while completing a mind-boggling 77.9 percent of his passes. Burrow’s herculean efforts has propelled LSU to be the No. 1 ranked team in college football and a date in the playoffs against Oklahoma in the Peach Bowl in Atlanta on Dec. 28 at 4 p.m.We have seen plenty of college football teams play cupcake schedules and reach big bowl games before, but that is not the case here. In today’s college football, we usually have big universities play mostly nobodies, and then one or two tough games before having to play their conference championship matchup if they are lucky to make it that far. That is what makes this LSU team and Burrow so different. The Tigers (13-0) have played what ended up being the most brutal schedule in college football. They have wins against five teams in the top 10, with two of those wins being on the road against Texas and Alabama. Their most important win, however, came in their best performance in the blowout against Georgia in the SEC Championship game.That Bulldog team had what was probably the second-best defense in the country (only behind Clemson in terms of stats) allowing only 12.5 points per game, and 274 yards per game. Joe Burrow played what was the best game of his career that day. He completed 74 percent of his passes for 349 yards and throwing four touchdowns in the process. He was without a doubt the best player on the field and looked like an NFL quarterback. It’s all these reasons that he will be the first player taken in the NFL draft this upcoming spring.Burrow, who was born in Ames, Iowa, and is the son of former Nebraska Cornhusker Jimmy Burrow, is everything NFL teams look for in their starting quarterback. He is listed at 6-foot-4 and has a strong enough arm to make all the throws in the route tree. He’s also a pretty athletic guy for being a taller quarterback. He has a similar build to Los Angeles Rams quarterback Jared Goff, but Burrow probably has him beat by a couple pounds. Burrow is also a pretty clever escape artist for not being the fastest guy on the field, but he actually is a decent enough runner to where he could fit any offensive scheme. The biggest benefit that Burrow has going for him is his accuracy. You can get away with not having a cannon arm in the NFL if you can throw the ball with great touch, and Burrow has thrown the deep ball better than anyone this season.The one knock that teams will probably have against him is that he has the best supporting cast in college this year, with both of his receivers probably going to be selected in the first two rounds of the NFL draft next year as well. Since Burrow is probably going to be selected first overall (probably by Cincinnati), it’s safe to assume his team will not have a ton of world beaters at receiver, so there will be plenty of ups and downs his first few seasons.That being said, Burrow seems to have the type of character to deal with those struggles. Call it cliché, but he has this sense of calmness on the field, the “it” factor in sports I like to call it. In 2018, in week three on the road against Auburn, Burrow led the Tigers on a game-winning drive where he converted two third-and-longs and a fourth-down conversion in what was a 14-play drive that got them in range to kick the game-winning field goal. There are not a lot of veteran college football quarterbacks who can accomplish that, and Burrow did it in what was his first career road start. It's games like that, along with his huge performances against teams like Georgia this year, that set him apart.Burrow is going to be a great NFL quarterback. He will probably struggle in the first part of his career adapting to NFL offenses, the increased talent level on defense, and the learning curve of playing with less help around him. That being said, it won’t be long before Burrow is dominating the NFL like he has college football this year. Burrow and the Tiger’s continue their National Championship run Dec. 28 against the Oklahoma Sooners in one of the national semifinals. Contact River Gracey at RGRACEY@augusta.edu.