TREYLON BURKS WAS inquisitive about LSU and Clemson, however his coronary heart and his household have been by no means going to let him enterprise removed from dwelling within the tiny city of Warren, Arkansas. He dedicated to Arkansas as a junior in highschool and took solely one in every of his 5 allotted official visits — to Arkansas — leaving early so he may sleep in his personal mattress.
However what wasn’t identified till just lately was simply how near dwelling he thought-about staying. His highschool coach, Bo Hembree, hinted at it final month when he mentioned, “It wouldn’t have shocked me if he went to a Division II school.” The thriller faculty had a reputation — Ouachita Baptist — however Hembree did not need to converse out of flip. “I’m gonna let him talk about that.”
Because it seems, Burks is an open e-book.
“Oh yes, sir,” he responded on the point out of OBU. “I’ve always liked it there because it was right by home. All my friends went there. There were times I was thinking about it.”
He later added, “I wouldn’t say it was too serious, but it was always a thought I could go there.”
Burks understands how folks would have reacted to a high 4 that included three recognizable Energy 5 packages and Ouachita Baptist. It is inconceivable {that a} top-100 participant would give a faculty from the Nice American Convention the time of day. But, as Burks put it, “I don’t care what people think.”
That was the primary glimpse right into a mindset uncommon for a prospect on the verge of being chosen within the first spherical of this month’s NFL draft. Since 2020, Burks ranks third nationally in yards after catch (996). He has 9 receptions of not less than 48 yards throughout that point, tied for essentially the most within the Energy 5. Nonetheless, Arkansas coach Sam Pittman mentioned he was struck by how mild-mannered and assured he’s.
“Quiet,” Pittman mentioned of Burks, “but can catch anything close to him.”
Though he performs a place synonymous with larger-than-life personalities, Burks is devoid of flash. He grew up outdoor, searching, fishing and enjoying sports activities year-round. When it rained, he’d sit on the entrance porch together with his great-grandfather ready for the storm to move. It was there that Grandpa Joe, who fought within the Vietnam Battle and labored for the Warren College District for 30 years, instilled in him the idea that “you’re no bigger than any other man.”
Hembree has coached his justifiable share of FBS prospects over 24 years at Warren Excessive, together with execs like Jarius Wright and Chris Gragg, and Burks stands out, largely for his strategy.
He was solely the second freshman to ever begin for Hembree, and he did all of it. As soon as, as a junior, he scored 5 touchdowns 4 methods in a recreation: twice speeding as a Wildcat quarterback, one punt return, one interception return and one bubble display screen he caught as a receiver and ran 61 yards to the home.
However he wasn’t a stats man, Hembree mentioned. In the event that they have been up by two or three scores, Burks would take it upon himself to place his backup within the recreation. He’d burn a defensive again in apply and as an alternative of taunting, he would circle again and stroll the DB by way of what he’d executed fallacious.
“He’s not a self-promoter, he’s a team-promoter,” Hembree mentioned. “That’s what’s going to make him a great pro.”
So, of Ouachita Baptist and the trail not taken, Burks sees it merely.
“You know,” he mentioned, “if I have the talent to make it to the NFL, it doesn’t matter where I go. They’ll come find me. That’s just a mentality that I’ve always had.”
LISTEN TO ENOUGH Treylon Burks tales and it is laborious to keep away from similarities to a different prep star who grew up within the South as a multisport athlete. Burks was Warren’s model of Bo Jackson — not less than when it comes to his dimension and energy, defined his highschool baseball coach, Michael Milum.
Baseball was his past love, beginning at age 6, earlier than he ever picked up a soccer or a basketball. He may fly across the basepaths and had a cannon for a proper arm. By the point he acquired to Warren Excessive, he may take the mound in a pinch and throw within the higher 80s. As soon as, he hit a foul ball so laborious he bent his metallic bat.
He had vary as a middle fielder, too, protecting foul pole to foul pole. The issue? He had no sense of the warning monitor.
Milum remembers one recreation when Burks was shaded to left-center and a ball was hit deep to right-center.
“He just starts tracking it and catches it on the run and about a half a step after he catches it, the fence catches him,” Milum mentioned.
Fortunately, the fence was chainlink and Burks did not hit a pole set in concrete. However when he fell, the fence fell with him.
Milum ran out to verify on Burks, who spit out a wad of one thing vibrant crimson because the fence sagged again into place. He’d just lately gotten braces and his mouth was minimize to shreds. Grinning by way of bloody tooth, Burks confirmed Milum the ball in his glove and mentioned, “I’m good.”
“He was very tough,” Milum mentioned.
Milum had a number of coaches inform him they thought Burks had MLB potential. He usually puzzled what may need been if Burks dedicated solely to baseball.
“But you can also say that about him in any sport,” Milum mentioned. “You could have said that when you watched him play basketball. He just had God-given ability.”
His basketball coach, Corey Muldrew, known as Burks a “man amongst boys.” He was a stable 200 kilos as a freshman, but he was among the many quickest gamers on the crew.
“And he was definitely the most explosive guy on the team,” Muldrew mentioned. “I mean, he was just a phenomenal athlete.”
Regardless of being barely undersized at 6-foot-2, Burks was a stretch energy ahead who may shoot the three and deal with the ball in transition. However he was simplest within the paint. It was regular to see him block a shot, run the courtroom and dunk.
“If we shoot and make it, that was good,” Muldrew mentioned. “But if we shoot and miss, there was a good chance Treylon would get the rebound and put it back in.
“I guess he averaged 15-16 rebounds a recreation. I imply, he was dominant.”
In fact, that was one of the things that first piqued Arkansas’ interest.
Barry Lunney, who coached the Razorbacks tight ends at the time, had come to Warren during the spring evaluation period to see if Hembree had any up-and-coming prospects. Hembree got up from his desk and told Lunney to follow him to the gym. There was an eighth-grader he needed to see.
Lunney estimated that Burks had 30 rebounds that night. To have that size, power and athleticism at that age was impressive. Frankly, Lunney said, “He was straightforward to pick.”
Fast-forward a few months and Lunney was able to get his hands on tape from Burks’ freshman season on the Warren football team. It was the same size, power and athleticism that he saw on the basketball court, except now he got to see Burks’ top-end speed at receiver and his toughness as a safety unafraid to step into the box and make a tackle.
“He was the whole package deal,” Lunney said.
The only thing holding him back from the recruitment process was an unofficial policy then-head coach Bret Bielema had about offering in-state players too young. The rationale was if you take a flier on someone out of state and pull back later there would be little consequence. But flip-flop in your own backyard and you run the risk of losing the support of local high school coaches.
Lunney remembers bringing up Burks anyway and Bielema responding unenthusiastically, “Come on, Barry.”
“Coach,” Lunney said, “I am simply telling you, if you happen to did not know he is a freshman …”
Lunney played Burks’ tape and made his pitch: Be the first Power 5 to offer a scholarship and enjoy the upper-hand when other schools play catch-up.
Bielema agreed and eventually, the secret got out and every SEC program heard about the dynamic receiver in Warren. But Lunney was a constant presence.
“It was like Groundhog Day,” he said. “Each week, I used to be there.”
Like a lot of players he recruits, Lunney traded direct messages on social media with Burks regularly. But instead of feeding his ego with the typical promises of playing time, Lunney and Burks swapped photos of fish they’d caught.
Lunney remembered one of the first things Hembree told him: This kid is different.
Burks didn’t play video games or sit glued to the TV. When he drove away from practice, chances are there were a couple of fishing poles sticking out of the back of his truck.
“He is powerful as a bull,” Hembree told Lunney, “and he’d moderately be within the woods than anyplace else.”
HEMBREE KNEW THERE was something special about Burks long before he got to high school and on the radar of the nation’s top colleges.
Warren High has a reputation for producing an unusually high number of FBS prospects for a place so small (population 5,500). Lunney joked, “There have to be one thing within the water there.” But the 2008 class, in particular, was loaded with four players who were all heading to Arkansas, including future NFL receiver Greg Childs.
During pregame warmups around that time, Hembree was distracted by the water boy. The Burks kid was awfully big for a third grader, he thought.
Hembree watched as Burks shagged balls for the kickers and punters. Most kids that age struggled to catch a soft spiral, but Burks was nabbing booming, end-over-end kicks. And he wasn’t using his chest to cradle the ball, either. He was catching them with nothing but his hands.
Hembree remembers an opposing coach walking over, pointing to Burks and asking, “Who’s that child?”
Every Friday night, Burks was there. He knew who Childs and the other stars on the team were, but even at that age he wasn’t in awe of them. “I used to be simply doing a job,” he said. “In Warren, all people’s humble.”
But in Warren, everyone pays attention, and it was no secret that Burks was growing into a special athlete. In Pee Wee football, he was so big and fast they came up with rules to limit his impact: He couldn’t play quarterback or running back. If they wanted to get him the ball on offense, they had to throw it to him beyond the line of scrimmage.
Thankfully, in high school, Hembree said, there were no such rules. Burks would play Wildcat quarterback, receiver, rush end and safety. He also was the punter.
Burks came up with a rule for Hembree, rather than the other way around: I don’t come off the field on defense, period.
The only time coaches convinced him to stay on the sideline was when he broke his hand and had a cast up to his elbow. Still, he dressed out just in case. And when one of the starting receivers was injured, Hembree relented and let Burks on the field as a decoy. He warned him, “We’re not going to throw you the soccer.”
Who was he kidding?
“He ended up having 12 catches for like 282 yards and three touchdowns on one hand,” Hembree said.
Milum, who was an assistant on the football team, laughed as he recalled that game.
“Something thrown at him, you do not surrender on,” he said.
Well, that and hands that grew to 10.25 inches and catch everything in their general vicinity. He had to squeeze into size 4XL receiver gloves, going through a new pair every other week in high school. In baseball, he used a softball mitt because it was the only thing big enough that fit.
Burks, who never got serious about basketball, planned to play both football and baseball when he got to Arkansas, but he tore his ACL as a senior and decided to focus solely on football. He rehabbed that winter and spring, and was ready by preseason camp. After getting his feet wet as a freshman, he emerged as one of the top receivers in college football last season.
His size and versatility conjured memories of DK Metcalf and Deebo Samuel — stars in the SEC who are now among the best receivers in the NFL. Over the past two years, Burks ranks in the top 10 nationally in receiving yards (1,924) and receiving touchdowns (20). He was targeted 158 times and dropped only seven passes.
He ran a 4.50 second 40-yard dash at the NFL combine, but his game speed is even more impressive. Just ask Alabama’s secondary. Everyone knew Burks was Arkansas’ go-to target last season, and he still managed to catch eight passes for 179 yards and two touchdowns in a closer-than-expected 42-35 loss in Tuscaloosa.
Pittman said Burks is one of those players who always catches up to his target and, in turn, never allows himself to get caught.
“You bought particular folks that appear to only be quicker than all people else at that given time,” he mentioned.
PITTMAN STRUGGLED TO come up with the proper way to describe Burks: smart, articulate, someone who cares about his teammates. But the word he kept coming back to was “nation.”
“He hunts wild boar together with his canine and the entire 9 yards,” Pittman said.
Yes, you read that correctly. Burks doesn’t just fish. He doesn’t just hunt deer with a crossbow. He goes out into the woods in search of wild boar with nothing but his dogs and a knife.
Essentially what happens is this: The dogs find the hog and corner it. Then another dog is sent in to hold the wild animal in place. If it’s too small, they’ll turn the hog loose. But if it’s big enough to feed them and others, it’s time to go in.
Emphatically, Burks explained, “We don’t use weapons.”
“Utilizing a gun takes the enjoyable out of it,” he added. “Having a knife, it is extra of a thrill that you just’re getting up on a wild boar that might kill you. Actually it is only a thrill being on the market together with your family and friends and having a very good time.”
Burks knows how all of this sounds. The average wild boar is around 200 pounds. They’re powerful and their tusks are there for a reason.
“Some folks most likely contemplate me loopy,” Burks said, “however that is simply how I’m.”
He’s been hunting hogs since he was 9. He knows a few people who have been injured or had close calls, but he has managed to come out unscathed.
“I’d say I am not scared of untamed recreation like some individuals are,” he said. “Like bears, I am not afraid of them. I’ve respect for them. Going on the market, I am of their habitat.”
During the run-up to the NFL draft, Burks has had quite a few teams ask about his unusual hobby. He has assured them he doesn’t risk injury by saving hunting trips for the offseason.
He recently had a meeting with New York Giants — “Actually everybody was there,” he said — and they peppered him with questions about hunting wild boar. As he took the coaches and scouts through the process, he could see their eyes light up.
“They have been thrilled that somebody does that,” Burks said. “They’d by no means heard of it. It was wonderful to them.”
Mel Kiper Jr.’s latest mock draft tasks Burks to be taken with the twenty eighth choose by the Green Bay Packers. But he doesn’t plan on attending the event in Las Vegas.
Instead, he’ll be in Hot Springs, Arkansas, surrounded by family and friends.
When his professional career is over, that’s also where he says he’ll return — home to Warren. He’d love to follow in Hembree’s footsteps and coach high school football, and use whatever money he makes in the NFL to build a ranch.
Maybe it will be on a lake and he can fish right in his own backyard.
He gets giddy just thinking about it.
There will be animals everywhere, he said.
“Cows, horses, chickens, hogs, donkeys,” he added. “Actually all the things.”
