Burkett wants to take Franklin to the top
Prior to the 2021 prep football season, the Journal Sentinel will reveal the Supreme 17, a look at the top players in the area to watch. Each day between the first day of practice on Aug. 3 to the first day of games on Aug. 19, a different story on a different member of the Supreme 17 will be published.
Terrence Burkett picked up his phone and heard the hysterical voice of his son on the other end.
“Dad,” Myles Burkett said. “They asked me if I would switch to wide receiver.”
It was August 2018, just days after high school football practice had begun. Burkett, a freshman at Franklin, had grown up playing quarterback, but amid a crowded depth chart, was asked by the coaching staff if he would consider a position change within the offense.
“He’s really upset, almost panicked,” Terrence recalled. “He says, ‘Dad, they asked if it would be cool if I lined up at receiver.’”
As Sabers head coach Louis Brown recalls it, there was never any chance Burkett’s future was at any other position beside quarterback.
But not only was the starting varsity job locked up by standout Max Alba, there were also multiple older players battling for backup spots as well as another freshman that Burkett would have to beat out.
“We’ve always made him earn it,” Brown said. “Me, personally, I never thought he was moving positions. All I had to do was watch him throw one time.”
Coaches were simply floating the idea to the group that the easiest path to playing time may be to switch to receiver, but in the moment, Burkett’s mind was racing.
Burkett, even before taking a high school snap, was staunch about his abilities. In his mind, he was a quarterback, for better or worse. He told his coaches that he had put a lot of time into playing quarterback, that he had plenty to show them. If, after a few weeks, he still wasn’t producing what they needed to see, he could move to the perimeter.
“I was really stern about it,” Myles said.
‘Myles bet on himself’
As Burkett sits on the metal bleachers at the Franklin High School football stadium on a sunny July afternoon and recounts the story, he dons a white ball cap with a red Wisconsin Badgers logo that symbolizes how far he has progressed since that day three years ago when he almost became a wide receiver.
Burkett won the junior varsity job that fall, beat out upperclassmen for the varsity starting gig as a sophomore and has since thrown for 3,056 yards and 35 touchdowns in 17 career games. The 6foot-2 senior is now the top-rated quarterback in the state and, in January, committed to play for Wisconsin.
“Myles bet on himself,” Terrence said. “And it worked out.”
It wasn’t a smooth route to get there, though, even after the near-position change.
After throwing two pick-sixes in his varsity debut, Burkett responded by helping lead the Sabers on a 10-game win streak, setting up a Level 3 playoff game against defending state champion Muskego.
During the game’s first drive, Burkett was tackled from behind on a rollout and felt his leg collapse underneath him. It was a torn MCL.
Burkett knew something was wrong immediately when, on the sideline, he couldn’t cut or move laterally. Back in the locker room, trainers wrapped his knee and he headed back to watch the rest of the game on crutches.
“It wasn’t easy on anyone, especially him, because without his injury, we thought we were there with the best of them,” Brown said. “That hurt.”
Outwardly, he cheered on his team as they battled the eventual state champions but couldn’t muster up the requisite offensive firepower without him in a 17-7 loss.
Inside, though, it stung. In the biggest game of his life, with a chance to not only reach the state final but to prove himself to college coaches all over, Burkett suffered the injury.
Burkett was distraught. Rehab was just as difficult mentally on him as it was physically. To make matters worse, the first day after he was cleared for full participation in workouts, COVID-19 had swept through the country and sent Burkett back into isolation. He didn’t get to throw at any showcase events or college camps, both considered critical parts of the recruiting process.
“He was crushed,” Terrence said.
A changed perspective
Now, sitting on the bleachers with his senior season on the doorstep, Burkett looks down at the surgery scar on his knee. He’s had some time to reflect and, with the benefit of hindsight, has had a paradigm shift.
“As weird as it sounds, that injury did so much good for me,” Burkett said. “It helped me kind of build my whole profile as a quarterback. The time I had, I was able to figure out my mental, get in the playbook, watch film, figure out the behind the scenes stuff.
“(Before) I was just going out there and throwing to my receivers. I tell everyone, it’s funny because sometimes I’m glad that injury happened because it showed to me what type of person I was and what type of player I was.”
For as much studying of the game as Burkett did while shelved with his injury, he also learned the importance of getting away from it. He would delete social media, turn off his phone and spend extended time alone just watching movies or playing video games.
What Burkett learned was that getting away from being the Franklin quarterback or a Division I recruit allowed him to be himself. Immersing himself in other things is just as critical to his onthe-field success as digging into film; it’s why he would rather be known for his contributions to Bucks Twitter than for his college commitment.
“You’re not really known as Myles the kid anymore,” he said. “You’re kind of known as Myles from Franklin or Myles that’s going to Wisconsin. I’ve learned over time that I like to just be known as Myles a little more.”
An instant commitment
That’s why the group that evaluated and analyzed Burkett’s football ability more than any other was also able to land his commitment.
UW, in an effort led by then-quarterbacks coach Jon Budmayr and special teams coach Chris Haering, made an effort to know Myles the kid just as much as they got to know Myles the quarterback. Between an official visit during June and a trip to campus last week, Terrence noted how head coach Paul Chryst and the staff never once brought up football to Myles outside of preplanned sessions such as film watching.
“He wanted to go somewhere where he was really valued,” Terrence said. “Not just as a player, but he wanted to go somewhere they recognized what he brought to the table as a person.”
Wisconsin’s recruitment of Burkett began during his junior year last fall but heated up following the conclusion of the college season. He was the third class of 2022 quarterback that UW recruited, but when the first two faded, the Badgers went all-in on Burkett.
In the weeks leading up to their lateJanuary offer, the Burketts sensed it was coming. Fifteen minutes before Chryst was going to offer, Burkett was given a heads-up that a call was coming.
“We had a quick huddle to figure it out,” Terrence said. “Wisconsin’s not going to wait. This was the offer (Myles) wanted. We knew he had to make some quick decisions. Wisconsin checked the boxes. So, if this is what he wanted, if this makes sense, why wait?”
Burkett committed to the Badgers instantly, but waited two weeks before announcing publicly on his mother’s birthday.
Other schools including Illinois, Louisville, Northwestern and Washington had been poking around and five MAC programs had also offered, but Burkett had no desire to even consider playing anywhere else.
“I give him a lot of credit,” Brown said. “Once he got that Badgers offer, I’m sure he would’ve got a lot more if he publicized it. But he committed right away and that said a lot to me. That he wasn’t in it for notoriety, wasn’t in it for the offers and attention.”
Lofty expectations
Coming into the 2021 season, both Burkett and Franklin have high expectations. The Sabers return not only arguably the area’s single-most dangerous offensive player in Burkett, but eight other starters on offense and six on defense. They will be among the favorites in Division 1.
Burkett finds himself in a new spot, not only due to the hopes surrounding Franklin but taking the field with the unavoidable notoriety of being a Badgers quarterback that there may as well be a hovering “Motion W” logo over his head.
The Sabers have not played in a state final since 2016, but, short of Muskego, there may not be a team with a bolder target on its back.
Reminded of this information, Burkett shrugs his shoulders. This, he says, is why he has spent the last 18 months training his mind as much as his body.
“I feel like when I put all this work in and I’ve set my dreams, my standards, very high, this is what comes with it,” Burkett said. “It comes with a lot of people hoping you fail and a lot of people rooting you on. If you get here and you get scared of the lights in the moment, you’re really doing it for the wrong things.
“I do it because I love this game of football and it takes me places I could never imagine. So when I think of pressure, I know there’s high expectations, but I don’t think high expectations equals pressure.”
Burkett, in his coach’s eyes, seems ready for whatever comes next.
“He’s gotten stronger and gotten bigger, put on good weight,” Brown said. “He was locked in. It was evident in camp last week with how he was running things and distributing the ball and leading doing things that your great players have to do.”
The path to state, 14 weeks of teams taking their best shot at you, can be arduous. It can be demanding, both physically and mentally.
But if it is, don’t tell that to Burkett. He’s busy focusing on just being Myles.