MORGANTOWN — For West Virginia football to be better in 2023, the Mountaineers’ secondary undoubtedly must perform better than last season.
To that end, the coaching staff brought in four transfer players with mounds of starting experience between them. And yet, it is one of WVU’s returners, someone who played through all the inconsistencies of last year, who is expected to lead the group in 2023.
WVU coaches raved about junior safety Aubrey Burks throughout fall camp for his increased play-making ability and his mastery of the team’s defensive scheme.
“He can go as far as he wants,” safeties coach Dontae Wright said last week. “He can play in the NFL if he wants to and if he keeps doing the things that have got him to this point, he will.”
Burks started 11 games last year and turned in a solid season. He finished second on the team with 66 total tackles and had 4.5 tackles for loss, but made very few impact plays, a problem that plagued the entire secondary.
Burks only caused two turnovers all season, an interception and a forced fumble, and he did so in the span of just a few minutes, both coming in the fourth quarter of a win against Baylor on Oct. 13. The rest of the time Burks, by his own admission, was just “floating” out there.
“Even though I was a sophomore, that was my first time playing a full season, so at times I was just out there floating around, sometimes doing my own thing,” Burks said Monday. “Now I’m diving into it, changing my mindset on how I want to learn the game of football.”
What stood out about Burks during camp was that he was making those splash plays — interceptions and pass breakups — that eluded him and the rest of the secondary a year ago. The reason behind this step forward has been in his preparation.
“The best thing about Aubrey Burks right now is, he meets with me one-on-one every other day,” Wright said. “First thing in the morning, he meets with me at 6 a.m. every other day, it does not matter if we’re practicing or if it’s an off day.”
In these early morning meetings, Burks is spending time learning not only what his responsibilities on the field are, but the responsibilities of all 11 WVU defenders.
“He is not only trying to figure out his job but he is trying to make sure he understands where all those pieces are and that’s why he is able to play the way that he is,” Wright said. “He knows what he has to defend and only what he has to defend. He knows every other person’s job so he is able to play really, really fast. When a young man gets to the point where he’s not worrying about his job and now all he has to do is look at what the offense is telling him, now the game comes easy.”
Wright estimated that Burks grabbed seven or eight interceptions and broke up five or six more passes throughout fall camp.
“Those meetings with Coach Wright, that’s why I’m making those plays,” Burks affirmed. “Those meetings with him help me with my play recognition before the play is snapped. I give credit to Coach Wright; he’s a great coach.
“It’s me just slowing down, not being too fast and understanding our defense more. I pretty much know all 11 positions on our defense so understanding what I need to do and where our pieces are at helps me play even faster.”
After seeing what these meetings have done for his own play, Burks has started recruiting others to join him in Wright’s office first thing in the morning. It started with fellow safeties Anthony Wilson and Keyshawn Cobb, but Burks hopes to expand out to other positions as well.
“I’m trying to get the spears now to come in just so we can be on the same page,” he said. “And hopefully linebackers and then we have the whole back seven coming in to meet in the early morning and then get another meeting in before practice.”
Not only has understanding the entire defense helps Burks’ individual play on the field, it’s turned him into an extension of the coaching staff, someone who can answer any question about WVU’s defense.
“I know I can go to him if I have a question about anything,” Wilson said.
That, in turn, has turned Burks into more of a leader as well, since other players know they can rely on him.
“Not only is he leading himself and holding himself accountable, but now those meetings at 6 a.m., now you’ve got a spear in there with you, you’ve got a spur in there, you’ve got corners and it’s all because he’s bringing them in,” Wright said. “He wants us to play well, but he knows they need him to talk to them. That’s what he does, he controls everything.”
Fans will get their first look at the jump Burks has made when the Mountaineers open their season Saturday night at Penn State (7:30 p.m., NBC).
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