Wednesday August 09, 2006

Burton Burns

I have had the opportunity to meet and spend at least a little bit of time with almost every Clemson football assistant football coach since 1986. Over the last 20 years, I have some great stories and great memories from many of these former and current coaches. I am proud to call many of them good friends but a select few I am proud to call great friends.

Current Clemson running back coach Burton Burns is one of the finest gentlemen I have ever been associated with. I am not sure I have ever met anyone more genuine or more positive than Burns. This is a man that has as many positive qualities as any you could ask for in a coach and a role model. I know the players that play for him are better people because they get to spend such quality time with this great leader.

Burns credits his father for some of his best attributes. I have met his father, who was a long time football coach in New Orleans. After meeting his father it is easy to understand where Burton got his kindness. Burton told me one time that the one thing he learned from his father is to look for something good in everyone. He said his father never has a bad word to say about anyone. Burton told me that his father told him it is easy to criticize but the hard part is to find something positive in each human soul. He thought everyone had something to contribute and it is up to you to find the good inside everyone.

Burton grew up in New Orleans and played in the first integrated high school football game in the state of Louisiana. After a great high school career he played four years for legendary coach Tom Osborne at Nebraska. Like most of his former players at Nebraska, Burns really looks up to his former head coach and considers Osborne a role model.

Burns spent 22 years coaching in the state of Louisiana at the high school level and at Southern and Tulane. In 1999 Clemson became a better place when he decided to come with Tommy Bowden from Tulane.

In his seven years at Clemson, the Tiger offense has six of the top 10 offensive seasons in school history. Only six teams in Clemson history have averaged 400 yards of total offense per game and Burns has been the running backs coach for four of the six.

In the last three seasons, Clemson running backs have lost a total of two fumbles. His backs are also complete backs by the time they leave Clemson because Burns is a great teacher of blocking and receiving skills.

Burns is also considered an excellent recruiter. In his Clemson career, he has signed players like Chad Jasmin, Curtis Baham, Trey Tate, Ben Hall, James Davis, Ray Ray McElrathbey, Michael Hamlin, Haydrian Lewis, Nick Watkins, Josh Miller, Barry Richardson, Durrell Barry, Kwam Williams, Jacob Ford, Byron Maxwell and Jamal Medlin.

He is a terrific recruiter because Burns builds relationships with high school coaches, prospects and their families. He is honest and hard working on the recruiting trail. But the relationships continue once the prospect turns into a signee. No one does a better job with the players than Burns. He is liked and trusted by the players. Burns has a genuine concern for their well being and the players sense that.

As good of a coach Burns is he is a better father and husband. Burns and his beautiful wife Connie have five children. Each is a college graduate with several of his children earning postgraduate degrees. I have kidded Burton in the past that his family has more degrees than a thermometer. His two oldest girls Amber (32) and Christy (29) are very successful in the business world. The Burns only son, Damon, is 24 and just earned his MBA after a successful college baseball career at Texas Southern. He has taken a job with Comerica. The baby of the family is Erin (22), a Ms. Daniel High School pageant winner who is now in grad school in Atlanta.

Connie and Burton love the Clemson community. They have embraced us here and Clemson is better to have them call Clemson home. Connie is one of the best recruiters for the Clemson program because when a parent of a prospect spends time with her on their official visit weekend the parents are sold by the end of the weekend.

The entire Burns family has great ties to athletics. Burton’s nephew Vinnie Burns was the punter at Virginia Tech for four seasons. Burton’s brother is on the Sugar Bowl committee and is a respected businessman in New Orleans.

Speaking of New Orleans, Hurricane Katrina was devastating to the Burns family. Many of Burton’s friends and family have not yet returned to their homes. The damage still lingers in their hearts.

I have enjoyed the best conversations with my friend Burton Burns. Many are about football, personnel or schemes. But most are about other much more important things. Most of our conversations are about the real issues like life, fatherhood, relationships, leadership, integrity, caring, sharing, etc. Whenever Clemson wins a football game one of the first people I think of is Burton. I share his enthusiasm for winning. Whenever Clemson looses a football game, again Burton is one of the people I first think of because it hurts me to see him hurt as bad as he does after a loss.

What a world we live in where a white guy in his 30s from South Carolina can learn so much from a man that grew up in a segregated New Orleans in the 1950s. I can thank Clemson football for bringing us together. I can thank his father for instilling in Burton the things I want to pass along to my son. I introduced my son to Burton for the first time in June and somehow I think my son is better for meeting a true role model.

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