Marriage and football normally don’t get brought up together, but senior offensive lineman Garrett Brumfield believes the relationship between his o-line and quarterback Joe Burrow is more than just football.
The offensive line had its hardest test of the season against Auburn’s defensive front that’s riddled with returning starters, including three along the defensive line. The War Eagles came into the game tied for the most sacks in the Southeastern Conference, but none of this mattered to the LSU o-line.
Nothing could break the chemistry that the Tigers have built along the o-line, even with the loss of Brumfield for a large portion of the second-half due to injury. Not even a true freshman going against one of the best lines in the nation could unravel this team.
The Tigers came into the game as heavy underdogs against then-No. 7 Auburn, with many people predicting LSU to not even make the game competitive. These people didn’t know the type of chemistry that this o-line has, a chemistry that Brumfield describes as a marriage.
“It’s just something that comes over time,” Brumfield said. “Being offensive linemen is like being in a marriage, you know you gotta work on it. We’re like five guys who are married together, and you learn more about each other the longer you’re married.”
The LSU Tigers had completed a decisive 11-point comeback, one that saw LSU come together as a team to complete the “walk-off” win in front of 87,451 screaming Auburn fans.
“Obviously, a great team win for our guys on the road at Auburn,” coach Ed Orgeron said. “Tough environment, very good football team, very well coached. Some of the things that came out of the game was character, leadership, poise. We talked about having poise all week, we talked about it was going to take 60 minutes and it took every second of the game and we talked about finish and we finished.”
Brumfield has made it clear that this team is different, and as the most experienced lineman on the team he knew the offensive line would face its hardest task of the early season. The line performed at a high level against one of the toughest front sevens in the country.
“I thought our line played outstanding and only gave up one sack against possibly one of the best defensive lines in the country, those guys were really on target,” Orgeron said. “I thought we had a great scheme. We sprinted around and we switched out protections around and coach (Steve) Ensminger and coach (James) Cregg did a tremendous job.”
The o-line wasn’t the only position playing at a high level for the Tigers, as Burrow had his best game of his LSU career going 15-for-34 for 249 yards and a touchdown. Burrow played another game of clean football, making the Tigers the only team in the FBS without a turnover this season.
Brumfield described Burrow as the ‘wedding planner’ because of the relationship between the o-line and the junior quarterback.
“He fits right into the puzzle as part of our wedding,” Brumfield joked. “Joe’s our wedding planner and we just wanna keep him involved and like I said have a great wedding every week for the rest of the year.”
The relationship between the two units will be key for the Tigers moving forward if they hope to continue to win football games. The Tigers have the most impressive record in the country for the early season, becoming the first team since 1975 to beat a pair of Top-10 opponents three weeks into the season.
With four games remaining against Top-25 teams including games against No. 1 Alabama and No. 2 Georgia the Tigers chemistry will need to be strong if they hope to continue their winning ways.
A chemistry that will need to be like a marriage, one that endures good times and bad, but always stays together through it all with their wedding planner leading the team into battle week after week.