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.
The Raiders, now 16-4, are off to their best start in the 33 seasons they’ve been a Division I program.
As for being wooed by Ohio State, Holden said: “It was just a huge opportunity that you can’t overlook. Not a lot of people get that chance.
“But I looked at the longevity of it and I felt if I played basketball somewhere, I could make an impact my freshman year. And at Ohio State or another big-time school I’d have to sit out a few years and kind of just waste time.
“I didn’t want to regret my decision and move away from basketball just to chase a big name or try to get verification on Instagram or Twitter.”
His dad, Rodney Holden, who had a Hall of Fame basketball career a Marshall University, understood his son’s decision:
“His love had always been basketball and football was something he did and he played with some good individuals and they all excelled.
“But when you go to a big university — and this is no disregard to them — sometimes you go there and it’s not what you expected.”
Once he decided on basketball, Holden found that the two schools he’d narrowed his list to — Marshall and Winthrop — had moved on in different directions. He then looked at his other options — and there were several, including Wednesday’s opposition, Cleveland State.
He said he chose Wright State because he felt the players “were just genuine good guys” and he liked that the coaches were “straight forward, so if you do something wrong and need to change, they tell you straight up and don’t sugarcoat it.”
But head coach Scott Nagy and his staff haven’t had to admonish Holden very much.
Nagy has admitted that when Holden and guard Trey Calvin, another freshman from Illinois, came in this year he didn’t foresee a lot of court time for them: “We didn’t necessarily anticipate playing freshmen that much.”
Instead, Holden has started 16 of 20 games this season. He came off the bench in the season-opening victory against Central State and scored 21 points and was a starter by game two. Just before Christmas, he led the Raiders to a win at Toledo, scoring 27 points and grabbing 10 rebounds.
He leads the team in steals and trails only walk-on Andy Neff (who has made 5 of 6 shots) in field goal percentage, having made 83 of 144 attempts for 57.6 percent.
He’s second in rebounds (6.8 r.p.g.) and fourth in scoring (11.5 p.p.g.), assists and blocked shots.
“He’s just a good player” Nagy said. “But he’s also the beneficiary of teams having to focus so much on Loudon (Love), Cole (Gentry) and Bill (Wampler).
“Those three players put a lot of pressure on an opponent’s defense. Tanner just gets a lot done because of that. There’s only so many guys (an opponent) can focus on.
“And he’s such an active player and has such a good feel for chasing the ball and being around the basketball. He’s a good passer and a good ball handler. There’s a lot of things he can do and … he has such a good (basketball) IQ. That’s something you can’t teach.”
Holden said as the season has progressed he’s felt more and more that he made the right choice of both sport and school.
With a smile, he admitted some folks back home questioned his decision:
“For sure people always talked — they still talk — every time they watch Ohio State. They say, ‘Man, you should be out there right now!’
“But I had a decision to make and I feel like I made the best one coming here.”
When he picked Wright State, he said his dad and his sister Sydney — a senior guard at Rio Grande who’s a 1,060-point career scorer and this season leads the team with a 13.7 points-per-game average — gave him some advice.
“They said, pretty much, all your high school stuff doesn’t matter. No one in college cares what you did in high school.”
And while has done a lot – he was a first team All-State player on 2018 and twice scored 50 points in a game – he said his parents and sister told him he needed “a different mindset…You’ve got to have a killer mindset.”
They also stressed that the family tree wouldn’t automatically bear fruit for him in college.
“It’s not about following in anyone’s footsteps, it’s about blazing your own trail,” said Rodney, who attended Thursday’s game with Tanner’s cousin and three of his best friends and teammates from Wheelersburg High School. “And the only way that happens is by continuing to work. You’ve got to work hard, continue to be humble and just stay true to yourself.”
He also reminded him that: “They recruited you in 2019, but in 2020 they’re recruiting someone else just as good as you are.”
That’s likely some of the realization that derailed Skyelar Potter at WSU this season. In his freshman season last year, he showed lots of high-flying promise as a sixth man, but this year Holden came in and was starting ahead of him as a freshman.
Nine games into the season, Potter decided to transfer and has landed at Morehead State.
Nagy talked about Potter recently and said the decision to part ways had been mutual: “We just felt like we didn’t see things the same way. There was no yelling and screaming. I miss him. I love that kid and we want what’s best for him.”
Meanwhile, Holden said what’s best for him has been Wright State:
“For sure, 100 percent, I wouldn’t change a thing.”
And that is the Joe Burrow of LSU.
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