WVU safety Aubrey Burks both dream, nightmare

Aug 29, 2023

West Virginia’s safety Aubrey Burks (2), from Oakridge, Fla., breaks up a pass intended for a Kansas State receiver. (Photo Provided)

MORGANTOWN — We see what transpires and who perspires on the field, which is what you get with the price of a ticket or a hi-def TV hanging on your den wall.

What we don’t see is what goes on off it, what goes on in the locker room, in team meetings, in the head and the heart of the players who play the game.

We judge our football heroes by what we see, but coaches are different. They see into the team room, into the weight room, onto the practice field and into the head and hearts of the players and, given that data, they know who they can count on, who they can’t; who to trust at key moments and those to avoid then.

They know that the prayed-for improvement in a defense that was as leaky as a dollar-store hose last season has to be driven by Aubrey Burks, the 5-foot-11, 201-pound safety from Oakridge, Florida.

He is a coach’s dream and an opponent’s nightmare, something Penn State has spent much of its off-season studying for ways not so much to stop him but avoiding him in Saturday’s 2023 kickoff game in State College.

“He’s an extension of the coaching staff,” WVU assistant Dontae Wright, in charge of the safeties, said as preparations got serious for one of the most crucial seasons in Mountaineer history.

“Not only is he leading himself and holding himself accountable, but he’s bringing other players in other positions with him, too.:

It is the rare individual whose spirit is felt from one position room to another, whose preparation and effort serve as a model for anyone to follow, from kicking specialist to nose guard.

Burks was WVU’s best defender last season, which may not really be saying a whole lot, but he played so well that he put himself in position to believe he can make his own dreams come true and play professionally, something Wright will not dispute.

“The kid can play in the NFL if he wants to,” Wright said, not only last spring but last week. “I said that last spring and I’m doubling down on it. If he continues to do the things that got him to this point, he will.

“But,” Wright went on, “That’s ‘if’ now. That’s on him and he knows that. The ball’s in his court. He has to keep doing it.”

He’s aware of the situation, has been since practice kicked back up last February, when the emphasis for the team went onto being physical and where he was being pushed to be a more vocal leader and a smarter player.

“This camp was different for me than last year because I wanted to step up and be more of a leader. I was looking to bring other guys with me,” he said. “I learned from coach Wright. We would meet every other morning, 6 a.m., and my football IQ grew. My knowledge for the game has made a big improvement.”

He’s at the point where he not only can make a difference in the performance of the 2023 WVU football team, but where he can dictate his future and drive himself into the NFL.

If fall camp was any indication of what lies ahead, he’s cruising toward becoming part of the public and the NFL scouting must-see list. He had 7 or 8 picks in camp, to go along with breaking up a similar number of passes, according to Wright.

It would be easy to just lay at the feet of his exceptional talent, but that is only part of it … maybe not even the major part of it.

“It’s because he knows what he has to defend and only what he has to defend. He knows every single person’s job, and that allows him to play really, really fast,” Wright said. “You’ve heard me say this before: When a young man gets to the point where he’s not worrying about his job now and all he has to do is look at what the offense is telling him, now the game comes easy.”

The truth is, the game never really comes easy. It only looks that way when you see and react without having to think, to mull over game film in your mind while the play is in progress.

It comes from study and discipline and confidence. It is the big step from college football to the NFL.

That’s where the 6 a.m. meetings come in, meetings that started with him and Coach Wright that he has now helped grow into most of the safeties every other day.

“He’s preparing himself to be a professional right now,” Wright said. “That’s his whole thought. ‘I want to be a professional. I better do it right now. If I wait until I get there, good luck to you.’ Learn how to play that way right now, and now you’ve got a chance if you’re blessed enough to get there.”

“Even though I was a sophomore last year, this is my first year playing a true full season. At times I was out there last year just floating around doing my own things. Now, I’m into it. I changed my mindset on how I want to learn the game of football and how to approach the game,” he said.

“Bryce Ford-Wheaton last year was one guy who I saw made a big change. Once he made the change he played so well and I was like, I want to be in the shoes he was in. I told myself, if I want to make a change I have to see that my IQ gets better and I got to bring my teammates with me and be more vocal.

“I had respect from my teammates last year, but I wasn’t as vocal as I am now. Me being more vocal will definitely help our team.”

There are many role models for him to follow. OK, WVU is not Georgia or Alabama, sending six and seven and eight players to the NFL per year.

But there are the Geno Smiths and Bruce Williams, the Ka’Raun Whites and Karl Josephs and Colton McKivitzes to look to, maybe guys under the radar who had to wait their turn. He can look to Marc Bulger, who did it the right way, to see that it can be done.

There is a lesson to him and others like him, too, in the trials former quarterback Will Grier is going through, cut by Dallas this weekend despite starting and playing the whole game and completing 29 of 35 passes for 348 yards and four touchdowns.

He approached the game the way Burks is and you just know his day will come someday, the NFL being as much about being at the right place at the right time as it is about being able to do the job.

Burks is hoping that he’s at the right place in WVU and at the right time for a safety is part of a coordinated machine and if he has to do too much, if he has to cover others weaknesses, it subtracts from him and how he is viewed.

Wright believes this may just be the right time to be playing safety at WVU.

“We have more depth, which leads to more competition,” Wright said. “That’s always a good thing. Every coach looks for that so the guys don’t feel comfortable and always feel someone is pushing them to get better.

“We got more tools. We got guys who are physical. We have guys who can play coverage. We got guys who can understand the game at a really high level. We’re faster than we’ve ever been. I see a lot of ability in the group as a whole and each is unique in his abilities. That’s exciting.

“They all can do what we ask them to do and it’s not like in the past where we had a bunch of youth and we were trying to teach them everything. I’m teaching calculus and trigonometry now instead of basic math. That’s fun. That’s exciting.”

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