SIGNED: ATH Rex Burkhead

[father5]

This may have turned into the dumbest thread ever...but we made it this far, so here goes:

 

 

 

[Huskers Forever]

It's funny you should ask about nicknames... I have had a nickname for him:

SEX TORNADO

Just checking to make sure I understand what the original intent was - nicknames for Rex (the football player). Correct? Wow - I must be getting old - I may need an explanation for that one. An old boyfriend? I'm lost.

 

Just roll with it

 

I think we all know which way you " roll with it" now. This is a good Texas Christian kid, and we don't want you to scare him away lilred.

[Landlord]

REXactly what the doctor ordered

 

 

 

REXTACY (the feeling of heightened emotion due to rex burkhead's mad game)

 

 

 

Burkhead WRECKS _________ (insert opposing team players or just opposing team)

[lilred]

Obviously none of you know the real SEX TORNADO

[redout22]

How about this?...E-Rex-shun?

Not the best one

[Huskers Forever]

Obviously none of you know the real SEX TORNADO

 

i'm sure in your homo-erotic dreams you think you do, but you need to stop this. You will never get your dirty hands on poor Rex

[lilred]

HAHAHAAHAHHAHAHAH what are you guys? Fifth graders?

[HSKRNOKC]

Although this topic has gotten so interesting.

 

Lets please get back to the intended topic. Thanks

[BIGREDFAN_in_OMAHA]

Did Burkhead play in one of the All American games?

[chickenheart]

When he scores or makes a big play he needs to have a pose and we can call it "The Rex Flex"

Sorry, you won't see any poses. He always hands the ball to the ref and goes back to the sideline. He is extremely humble. Superman is his nickname in highschool. I believe Tebow already has that one in college.

[SkerMin8r]

When he scores or makes a big play he needs to have a pose and we can call it "The Rex Flex"

Sorry, you won't see any poses. He always hands the ball to the ref and goes back to the sideline. He is extremely humble. Superman is his nickname in highschool. I believe Tebow already has that one in college.

 

Good Gawd!!! That is one UGLY chicken!!

 

Didn't they change Tebow's nickname to St. Tebow of Christ or something like that?

[redout22]

When he scores or makes a big play he needs to have a pose and we can call it "The Rex Flex"

Sorry, you won't see any poses. He always hands the ball to the ref and goes back to the sideline. He is extremely humble. Superman is his nickname in highschool. I believe Tebow already has that one in college.

 

Good Gawd!!! That is one UGLY chicken!!

 

Didn't they change Tebow's nickname to St. Tebow of Christ or something like that?

Must have missed it

[Axl_sued_me]

It's quite GAY in here.

[GSG]

I thought I read somewhere that Rex plays basketball too?

 

Anyone know how their season is going?

[Husker_Power]

Recruit plays game like it's supposed to be played

Lincoln Journal Star

 

The coach recalls one play in particular, just one play among all those head-turning plays in the Rex Burkhead catalogue. It's a play from a game deep in the Texas state playoffs a couple years ago.

 

Plano High School needed six points and there was no doubt among any Wildcat fan that Plano was about to get six. They had Burkhead on their side, after all.

 

Never mind that the foe was Euless Trinity, a Lone Star State power. And never mind that the setting was Texas Stadium, the longtime home of the Dallas Cowboys. It didn't matter the stage — on the practice field or on that field with the famous star logo. Burkhead always performed at full-steam.

 

And so, as everyone in the stadium expected, he got the ball, fighting through one Trinity player, then another, then another — the struggle tearing his helmet off. Didn't matter. Touchdown.

 

But it's what he did next …

 

"He just turned and flipped the ball to the referee," remembers Jaydon McCullough, who just finished his first year as head coach at Plano. "That was what he was supposed to do."

 

That's why they've been writing stories about Burkhead since his freshman year, scribes and coaches using words like "throwback" and "genuine" to describe him. That's why, as McCullough points out, there are a lot of kids in Plano "growing up wanting to be Rex Burkhead."

 

That's why opposing coaches can't help but like him. "They know that's the way football is supposed to be played," McCullough says. "Other coaches will come up and say, 'I love watching that No. 20.'"

 

And that's why some believe the steal of Nebraska's recruiting class that will be unveiled Wednesday very well might be the 5-foot-11, 190-pound running back/slot receiver/return man.

 

Shoot, he could play safety if Nebraska wanted him to do, McCullough says. He was a fullback as a freshman, a quarterback as a sophomore. He punted when needed. Played defense when needed. As far back as anyone remembers, he's the first to play varsity as a freshman at Plano, a school that has won seven state titles, more than 700 games and played in Texas Stadium more than any other school in the state.

 

When Plano plays a game against one of its rivals, there sometimes are 20,000 people in the stands.

 

Former Plano coach Gerald Brence, now the athletic director of the teams in the Plano district, remembers one game when Burkhead was brought in to play defense around the goal line. The opposing team scored and went for two. But on the conversion, Burkhead snagged the ball and returned it 100 yards for two points for Plano.

 

"Those are just kind of some of the things he would do," Brence says. "He just knew how to make plays. Combine his athletic ability with his smarts, he's really something else. I don't know if we've ever had a kid come through Plano that has gotten as much attention as Rex did. … Everybody knew about him. Every Saturday morning, they'd pick up the newspaper and see that he made a lot of plays, gained a lot of yards."

 

Burkhead had more than 6,000 yards in his career and more than 60 touchdowns. One game, he scored six touchdowns. No one in Plano was surprised.

 

Not just a one-sport guy, he's played on the varsity basketball team since his freshman year, when Plano won the state title. He could dunk as a ninth-grader even though he was just 5-7.

 

"And his dad told me one time his best sport is baseball," McCullough says. "He doesn't even play baseball here."

 

If you want to find someone in Plano who won't gush about Burkhead, you'll have to go to the player himself.

 

He was born in Kentucky, living there until he was 6, raised to be modest.

 

"Anything you get, you work hard for it, but you better be humble about it. That's kind of been preached through by my parents," says Burkhead, whose older brother Ryan attends Harvard. "You definitely can't let (the attention) go to your head or else it will mess you up and mess up everything that goes on in your life."

 

Rated by Rivals.com at No. 9 in the country as an all-purpose back, Burkhead had offers from the likes of Texas Tech, Texas A&M, Michigan, Auburn, Stanford, Louisville, Virginia, California and Mississippi.

 

But Nebraska has been on Burkhead's radar since he was little. He remembers watching Eric Crouch, and Rex's dad, Rick, has always had a soft spot for the Huskers and their style of play.

 

And then Rex visited Lincoln for the Spring Game. There were more than 80,000 people in the stands and there was that same passion for football that there is back in Plano.

 

"I thought I would fit in very well right there," Burkhead says.

 

His coach agrees, impressed by the new staff and his conversations with Husker head coach Bo Pelini.

 

"The thing that really impressed me about Coach Pelini is he really seems so down-to-earth," McCullough says. "I'm a first-year head coach and he's the head coach at Nebraska, and here he's asking me questions about what we do. It just showed me that the really good ones are always learning, always listening.

 

"I think he told the Burkheads what he stood for. And everything he stands for is what we believe in. I think Rex felt like they go about their business at Nebraska a lot like how we try to in Plano."

 

McCullough says he could see Nebraska using Burkhead in so many ways on offense: as a running back, in the slot, returning kicks.

 

He knows it's a different level, but it wouldn't surprise the Plano coach at all if Burkhead made an impact right away for the Huskers.

 

"What makes him special is he's always pointing the finger at himself," McCullough said. "He's always asking, 'What can I do to get better? What can I do to be a better leader? A better person?' That's what sets him apart. He's a difference-maker, a rope-holder. I believe in him."