In the lead-up to the championship game, Burrow put his growth down to two factors: a new scheme that the assistant coach Joe Brady brought to L.S.U. from the New Orleans Saints, and a full off-season to work with his receivers. They established a familiarity that echoed when a September game at Texas was in the balance and, facing third and 17, Burrow stepped away from a blitz and knew exactly where Justin Jefferson would be — hitting him over the middle for a clinching 61-yard touchdown.

“He did stuff like that in Athens all the time,” Ryan Luehrman said. “When we were in high school, every route — if we didn’t get it 100 percent, we were going to do it until we did, whether it was staying after practice, coming in on Saturday. Everybody sees how much he puts into it and follows suit. There was probably a lot of that at L.S.U.”

There was indeed, said L.S.U. Coach Ed Orgeron.

He noted that Burrow sat for three years at Ohio State and arrived in Baton Rouge with only one assurance — that he could compete for the starting job, a position he did not win until a week before the season opener.

“Joe wasn’t the Heisman Trophy winner when he got here,” Orgeron said. “He developed, he got better, he kept his mouth shut. Joe has not had a silver spoon in his mouth all his life.”

Orgeron added, “He came here with faith and built a championship team, and I don’t see why he couldn’t do it in Cincinnati.”

From a distance, what stands out to David Anderson, a former N.F.L. receiver who works for Gains Group, a sports technology consultancy, is Burrow’s ability to handle chaos: avoiding second-down sacks, fumbles or poor throws that lead to tipped balls or offensive pass interference.

(After the N.F.L. cognoscenti went into a tizzy at the news that Burrow’s hands were measured at a smallish nine inches — prompting a Burrow joke on Twitter about retiring — Anderson noted how well Burrow carries the ball near his front shoulder, making it less susceptible to being stripped.)