Arkansas native Treylon Burks looking forward to increased role in 2020
Treylon Burks receives nothing but love from Razorback fans being a home-state kid from Warren, Arkansas. Even though Burks had somewhat of a disappointing freshman year, hauling in 29 receptions for 475 yards and no touchdowns, he showed plenty of signs indicating his star potential.
“Sometimes I just put the chip on my shoulder and go to work every day, and just know that I’ve always got something to work for, and people to work for,” Burks said. “So I don’t ever have an off day. I wake up every morning, I pray to make sure that everything is straight, and I just go to work for Arkansas and my family and the team.”
Individual production isn’t something that Burks is concerned about when it comes to potential and role for the upcoming season. The second-year wide receiver has a whole other goal in mind for him and the team.
“I mean, it would be nice to get in the end zone but I’m not really worried about that part,” Burks said. “I’m just worried about making plays to help the team. If I do score, hurray, but I just want to win with the team.”
This offseason was one out of the ordinary for not only Burks, but for the entire country. However, that didn't deter the 6-foot-3 wideout from working on his craft to become the best receiver he can. When asked on what he focused on in training this offseason he noted:
“I’d say getting faster, slimming down just a little bit and coming out of my breaks on my routes,” Burks said. “Just bettering myself and my craft. For a big guy like me, running routes, it’s pretty hard at that position. Just getting better at that.”
Around practice, Burks is widely known as one of the most difficult receivers to guard on the team. Junior defensive back Montaric Brown has mentioned how much of a challenge it is to guard Burks.
“I call him Julio Jones because he has a big frame,” Brown said. “He can do anything. He has speed, power, and he can just run by you. Even though he's like 230, he can run by you. He's got all the weapons. He's built like an NFL receiver, to me. He can do anything.”
Those are big words coming from Brown, because Jones is Burks’ favorite receiver in the NFL. The coaching staff has also widely noted how talented and versatile of a player Burks is and will be for them in 2020.
“He’s talented enough to be a (number) 1 receiver on several teams, in my opinion,” Sam Pittman said. “We’ve got to find ways to get the ball to him - whether it’s throwing it to him, running him out of the backfield, throwing quick swings to him. He’s a big, fast receiver that we need to get touches to him.”
Though there are a plethora of ways to use Burks, including on special teams and the run game, he's just going to do whatever the coaches ask when his name's called.
“I’m not the type of person to approach a coach on what I would want to do,” Burks said. “I let him decide on if he wants to do that or not and come to me and ask. I’d tell him I can, that I’m capable of doing that. So I think we’ll get to run a little bit of it this year.”
The new playbook on offense that offensive coordinator Kendal Briles is installing is nothing new to Burks, as he stated, it is actually something very familiar to him.
“This offense, I can’t give y’all everything, but we work hard every day and I really like this offense,” Burks said. “It’s basically the same offense that my head coach back in high school, Bo Hembree, ran.”
This season is big for Burks. He has the potential to go from an Arkansas household name to a nationally known weapon–the coaches just need to get the ball in his hands.