The Cardinal Countdown: 36 Days Until Kickoff

#36 Maurice Burkley

Class: RS Junior

Ht/Wt: 6-0/206

Position: Running Back

Hometown: Naperville, IL

Twitter: @ball_is_life1_

Thoughts: If you were to walk up to the casual Louisville football fan and ask him/her to name some of the current Cards running backs the typical responses would likely be Hassan Hall, Dae Williams, and maybe Colin Wilson. Well, as of today, that’s the potential starter, a player not currently on the 3 deep and a player that no longer attends the University. So what does that mean? First, it means they need to read ‘Card Chronicle’ more often, and second, it means that we have some younger guys in the room that will be called upon to perform at a high level in a new system that points to the back at a greater frequency than what we’ve seen around here in quite some time.

I know this stat has been beaten to death since January but it is pretty crazy that Louisville has not had a running back lead the team in rushing for the season since 2014. If that doesn’t change this year we got BIG problems. Not 2-10 type problems, deep rooted problems in the program and on the roster that I can’t even imagine right now. Let’s just hope for the best.

Burkley has been with the program a few season now and got some opportunities last year on special teams. He has good size and speed and excelled at both RB and safety in high school out at Matea Valley in Naperville, IL. I’ve been talking all summer about how this new staff provided every player a fresh start and new opportunity to show who they are and what they can do. Burkley was one of those guys who did just that, bringing effort and a positive attitude to practice every day. Because of that, he was rewarded for his work.

(Surely he won’t show that same scholarship tweet again, right? You bet your Burkley I will)

Call him Space Cowboy, call him the Ganster of Love, or just call him Maurice, I call him a team leader and a young man ready to make an impact. I talked about it a few days ago but Satterfield has carried over his tradition from App State of creating a ’10-Strong’ program, or a group of 10 players from various positions that he identified as team leaders. Burkley is in that group, and he also happens to be fighting for a back up spot at running back behind Hassan Hall along with Javian Hawkins. Burkley will absolutely see the field this year on special teams but I think he has some skills that will translate to the running back group that might offer a different look than what you get out of Hall or Hawkins. Glad to see the young man make the most out of this reboot and earn a scholarship along the way.

Sweet Tweet:

Remember bowl games….those were fun. Let’s do that again, soon.