Carrying much more than the ball
Meet Huskies running back Robert Burns, who helps feed the hungry, make the doughnuts and will soon tote with him UConn’s hopes for resurgence
STORRS — Robert Burns is already a college graduate, business owner and community activist. He’s also a running back, soon to appear at a stadium near you.
“Football’s the focus,” said Burns, who joined UConn’s corps of running backs in May and is already emerging as a leader. “Football is the No. 1 priority in my life. Without a doubt, I know I can come in and contribute, I feel like I can make any play that’s called.”
Burns is from Florida City, Fla., on the very tip of the peninsula. “You can’t get to the Keys without passing through my town,” he said, a good slogan for the chamber of commerce to consider. At the University of Miami, however, Burns, 22, set back by injuries early in his college career, was lost in the running backs shuffle, playing mostly on special teams. With two years of eligibility he knew last spring it was time to move.
UConn coaches saw his name in the portal and quickly learned that Burns, in addition to having untapped power and speed, was co-founder and COO of the nonprofit Second Spoon, which collects unused food from college dining halls and delivers it to the needy. They also found he established Roberto’s Donuts on the Miami campus, a live-music venue that made and served oven-fresh doughnuts.
“He flew up on his own to visit,” said Kyle Weiss, the Huskies’ running backs coach, “and I said, ‘Who’s running the doughnut
“Football is the No. 1 priority in my life. Without a doubt, I know I can come in and contribute, I feel like I can make any play that’s called.”
— Robert Burns,
UConn running back
shop?’ And he said, ‘Oh, I’ve got people who are running it.’ He’s very open, talking, vibrant, when he walks into a room he just lightens up the room. Very mature, intelligent kid.”
Like a business owner scouting potential locations, Burns, with his girlfriend, took his own tour of campus and the surrounding area. He walked unannounced into the business school, for instance, and started asking, “Tell me about UConn.” He liked what he heard and saw and committed May 11.
The idea for Second Spoon came from a conversation with Anthony Mo Hasan, a quarterback from Miami who played at Syracuse and Vanderbilt and is now at USC.
“My best friend, Mo, he was at Syracuse at the time,” Burns said, “and he noticed there was a lot of food in the cafeteria being thrown out and he said ‘I wonder if there was a way we could take that food and get it to people who could use it? He reached out to me, and I said, ‘I want to be a part of it.’ I reached out to people at UM and in the community.”
Second Spoon is now 501c3 registered nonprofit organization with trucks in Miami, Nashville and Los Angeles, collecting soonto-be discarded food from restaurants, grocery stores and college campuses and distributing it to the homeless and others in need.
The doughnut business came from a class project, where Burns had to come up with a music-related business plan. “I had to come up with a project,” he said. “And I was like, ‘Man, what can I bring to life?’ I felt like doughnuts was a great idea.’ ”
Roberto’s Donuts operated outside, a popular pop-up spot for Miami students to listen to music and get doughnuts straight out of the ovens.
“It’s just like a football team,” said Burns, who earned his degree in communications with a 3.5 GPA. “You put people in place, you put people in position and you rely on your team when it comes to business.”
Will Connecticut be seeing Second Spoon and Roberto’s Donuts anytime soon?
“We’ll see,” Burns said, smiling ear to ear.
Burns certainly did his homework on the football situation, too, and saw there could be a role to his liking. Kevin Mensah has rushed for over 1,000 yards each of the last two seasons, and averaged 4.5 yard per carry through 35 career games, but coach Randy Edsall was looking to add depth at running back, and perhaps a challenge.
“I’ll just be honest,” Edsall said. “[Mensah] hasn’t developed as the type of leader that I would expect of a guy in his situation. He’s gotten better, but he still has a way to go to be the kind of leader he should be based on what he’s been able to accomplish.
“[Burns] has fit in very, very well. He’s made a very favorable impression on everyone in the program since he got here. That’s a very good addition, not just for the things he can do on the field, but he way he conducts himself as a person. A guy like Robert Burns is good for Kevin Mensah and the rest of those running backs, to see how he goes about his business on a daily basis.”
Mensah, 5 feet 9, 202 pounds, is taking Burns’ arrival as a win for everyone. “He knows where he came from, he knows he’s been a leader,” Mensah said. “There are just so many good things about him. I’m excited he’s here, excited he’s part of the running back group.”
Burns, 5-11, 225, brings a little more positional size for the Huskies, who began practicing Friday and open the season at Fresno State on Aug 28. He carried the ball 28 times at Miami, gaining 189 yards, 6.8 per attempt, and he caught 28 passes for 47 yards, with a touchdown against Duke. Perhaps at UConn, he’ll get the chance to translate an effusive personality into electric plays on the field. When Huskies fans see him carry the ball the first time, he hopes that have one takeaway.
“Damn, that’s an explosive, big, powerful guy,” he said.