ToughJ.Riggins
Hall of Famer
This kid is going to be a star. He's so good even caste wacko Rivals couldn't leave him off their 250 list. Rivals' scout Jeremy Crabtree said- on a small channel radio appearance in in the Dallas area when pressed on Rex's late rise in the rankings- that Rex would probably be a top 50 player in the nation if he were a black RB. What a weasel! If this guy knows what's going on, why does he continue to be a pushover for those caste vermin. But anyway, I will start with an good article:
That quote right there in bold says it all. 5'11 200 lbs "as a true freshman" isn't big enough to stay at tailback? There's numerous black kids smaller than that who "start" as "upperclassmen". The guy tabbed "superman" for dominating Texas 5A football who owns a 3.85 short shuttle/4.5-4.55 40 yd dash giving him a .65-.70 lateral agility mark (this would have put him 1st amongst all RBs and WRs at last years combine) isn't agile enough? ESPN even claimed Burkhead should play safety and has an "overachiever" element to him. ESPN could only find one white kid in the entire nation- Brandon Wegher- who they said his natural position was tailback.
Well anyways, the good news is Rex is 2nd team already and should get plenty of work behind Helu. Rex is in a much better position than Sam McGuffie was put in at Michigan (Nebraska has a better offense with much better run blocking than Michigan) and has a thicker frame that is more ready for the punishment of FBS football. Rex will learn from a quality player and person in Roy Helu!
Football: NU coaches marvel at Burkhead
By Mitch Sherman
WORLD-HERALD BUREAU
LINCOLN â€" Joey Stone recalls with great detail the last time he saw Rex Burkhead before the Texas high school football legend left home last month to begin practice at Nebraska.
Burkhead stopped by his old high school in Plano, Texas, to say goodbye to a few friends, including Stone, the running backs coach. Burkhead had just spent several weeks in Lincoln for a grueling period of summer conditioning designed â€" for the freshmen, at least â€" to supply a taste of what college demands.
He got the message, all right. Stone could see it in Burkhead's eyes.
"He was leaving here with a mission,"Â Stone said. "He was focused. And I promise you, whatever his mission is, he's going to accomplish it.
"If Rex Burkhead told me he was going to be the next president of the United States, I'd believe him."Â
Burkhead, three weeks later, works exclusively with the No. 1 offense in practice as Nebraska prepares for its opening game Sept. 5 against Florida Atlantic. The rookie is set to share time with junior Roy Helu, the Huskers' top rusher from a year ago.
Burkhead mania appears ready to strike. But the kid from north Texas "couldn't care less about any of that,"Â his father said.
"It's always going to be about tomorrow with Rex,"Â Rick Burkhead said.
Rex Burkhead looks on track to make a splash unlike any other freshman I-back at Nebraska in more than a decade.
Seemingly, he's immune to the pressure, oblivious to the buzz. "He doesn't play the game. He lives the game,"Â said Nebraska running backs coach Tim Beck, who played a key role in recruiting Burkhead away from Texas A&M, Michigan, Stanford and others.
Beck said Burkhead has already developed into a leader in Lincoln.
"Oh yeah,"Â the coach said. "It's kind of weird. He has a presence about himself unlike I have ever seen before in football."Â
And that strikes at the heart of what separates Burkhead. He's 5-foot-11, 200 pounds and not exactly the prototypical running back. For as long as he's played, observers have whispered that Burkhead ought to switch positions â€" to receiver or safety.
Burkhead, according to those who know him best, never gave it a minute of thought.
"I laughed it off,"Â said Dave Meger, a former coach and teacher at Plano High School whose son, Carson, quarterbacked Burkhead's teams from the time they were 13. "We all knew. We watched him in the fourth and fifth grade, and we knew he was special.
"Unless you've seen it, it's hard to understand."Â
The bottom line: He was born to play running back. And nothing, certainly not his age when matched against older, stronger boys, was going to stop Burkhead.
When he was 4, Rex wanted so badly to play on the team of 9- to 12-year-olds coached by his father that Rick gave him a set of pads.
"Rex wouldn't take no for an answer,"Â Rick said.
Rex's brother Ryan, three years older and now a senior defensive end at Harvard, wanted nothing to do with the bigger kids. He watched practice atop the nearby monkey bars as Rex lined up at free safety.
They never thought that little Rex would do anything but stand there â€" until he charged a ball carrier three times his age and nearly twice his size. The 12-year-old dived over the top of Rex to avoid trampling the kid.
"Rex got up like he made the tackle,"Â Rick said. "He started giving out high fives and ran back to the huddle. To him, he was playing football just as much as they all were."Â
Burkhead started 51 games at Plano High. He accumulated 6,393 all-purpose yards in his career and rushed for 1,762 last season in earning offensive player of the year honors from the Dallas Morning News in Class 5A, the ultra-competitive largest classification in Texas.
He excelled even as a freshman, the only ninth-grader in recent memory to make the varsity.
"That man is going to do whatever he wants,"Â said Carson Meger, the quarterback, now a freshman at Texas-El Paso.
It's no different, apparently, in college.
"It's not about him. It's about the team,"Â Beck said. "He gets it. A lot of very talented guys don't see the big picture. He does. He's a great young man. Players around him feed off his quiet confidence and work ethic. It's instant credibility."Â
The Burkhead pedigree appears largely responsible for his attitude. Rick Burkhead played at Eastern Kentucky and with Miami and Philadelphia in the NFL.
According to Rick, Rex "just gets football."Â He learned the fundamentals early. Rex studied a video of Barry Sanders so often as a kid that he wore it out.
"He would watch it and then go out back or to practice and emulate the stuff he'd seen,"Â the elder Burkhead said. "He went through drill after drill when he was young, and not because anyone made him. He wanted to."Â
The Burkheads have always been a tight family â€" Rick, his wife Robyn and the two boys.
"If we're not playing football, we're watching it together,"Â Rick said. "And if we're not watching it, we're thinking about it."Â
This summer, though, for the first time in two decades, it's only mom and dad at home.
And to make matters worse, since Rex's last visit home a month ago, the Burkheads have hardly heard a word from their youngest son.
"We've probably only spoken to him twice,"Â Rick Burkhead said. "My wife is threatening to track him down if he doesn't call home. But right now, he's just got his head down. He's working hard. He's doing what he thinks has to be done."Â
Contact the writer:
402-473-9587, mitch.sherman@owh.com
That quote right there in bold says it all. 5'11 200 lbs "as a true freshman" isn't big enough to stay at tailback? There's numerous black kids smaller than that who "start" as "upperclassmen". The guy tabbed "superman" for dominating Texas 5A football who owns a 3.85 short shuttle/4.5-4.55 40 yd dash giving him a .65-.70 lateral agility mark (this would have put him 1st amongst all RBs and WRs at last years combine) isn't agile enough? ESPN even claimed Burkhead should play safety and has an "overachiever" element to him. ESPN could only find one white kid in the entire nation- Brandon Wegher- who they said his natural position was tailback.
Well anyways, the good news is Rex is 2nd team already and should get plenty of work behind Helu. Rex is in a much better position than Sam McGuffie was put in at Michigan (Nebraska has a better offense with much better run blocking than Michigan) and has a thicker frame that is more ready for the punishment of FBS football. Rex will learn from a quality player and person in Roy Helu!