How Wisconsins Myles Burkett earned backup QB status as a true freshman

MADISON, Wis. — Live snaps were hard to come by for Myles Burkett as Wisconsin’s fourth-string quarterback when preseason practices began last month. Burkett, a true freshman who was still learning the offense, understood the pecking order: Starter Graham Mertz handled the bulk of the work with backup Chase Wolf running the second-team offense. Whatever snaps remained often went to redshirt freshman Deacon Hill.

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That left Burkett in a tricky spot. He desperately wanted to progress but had to determine how to make those gains without the reps. So, Burkett took matters into his own hands.

He began standing behind the rest of the players in practice with a football and established a routine in which he would look for the play signal from either Hill or walk-on quarterback Marshall Howe. Burkett would crouch down low, call the play to an imaginary huddle, snap the ball to himself and carry out the motions, faking a handoff and advancing through his reads downfield even though nobody was there to catch a pass.

“I feel like me doing that in the past set me up for the present,” Burkett said. “It may look stupid to somebody from afar, but to me, that’s how I prepared.”

That attention to detail is a big reason why Burkett was elevated into the backup quarterback spot and played two drives, ahead of Hill, during Wisconsin’s season opener against Illinois State on Saturday. Wolf is out for an extended period of time after sustaining a torn meniscus in his right knee during preseason practice. Burkett and Hill are listed as co-backups on Wisconsin’s Week 2 depth chart ahead of a home game against Washington State. Offensive coordinator Bobby Engram called it an ongoing competition.

But Burkett has already made significant strides and appears in strong position to be next in line if Mertz goes down.

“He’s always trying to learn,” Wisconsin coach Paul Chryst said. “Even when there’s times when I know he’s not getting the reps, I know he’s working at it. You see it even on the side sometimes in practice kind of going through it. I’ve liked the way that he’s approached it. His demeanor has been good, too. He’s had the right balance there. I think he’s certainly got some urgency to him but also is level-headed enough where it doesn’t get too big.”

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Burkett said he took to heart a mantra Engram relayed to him when he arrived on campus during the winter as an early enrollee: Fall in love with getting better. That’s why Burkett made a point to ask himself how he could find a way to get better at every practice. He said he picked up the offense more quickly from his one-man practice reps because he knew where his eyes and reads needed to be.

Even though Burkett did so quietly, teammates were paying close attention.

“What I’ve loved about Myles since he got here is his approach and his focus,” Badgers receiver Chimere Dike said. “He has a vision that he wants to be great and he works at it. Obviously, he has the talent level to play here. But I think what’s really going to get him far is how he approaches every single day and how he wants to grow, and he’s been a sponge. He’s deliberate about all his actions. He still has a lot of room to grow at the end of the day, but I know he’s going to be able to grow.”

Burkett made his first appearance with 7:43 remaining in the fourth quarter and Wisconsin leading Illinois State 38-0. He did not throw a pass. His debut featured six handoffs to reserve running back Julius Davis. Burkett was sacked on a third-and-6 at the Illinois State 41-yard line, which led to a punt. But the experience was particularly meaningful to him, representing the culmination of a years-long dream.

Burkett grew up a Badgers fan in Franklin, Wis., (his favorite player was former Wisconsin quarterback Russell Wilson) and told his parents as a child he would someday play at Wisconsin. His father, Terrence, tweeted Saturday a picture of young Myles standing in the front row of the Camp Randall Stadium bleachers.

Driving home from the game that evening he told me he would be Badger and play on the field one day. Dream realized ⁦@myles_burkett⁩ Have a great first game and savor every moment. Love, Dad ❤️ pic.twitter.com/vc8c8dPckC

— Terrence Burkett (@mke_terrence) September 3, 2022

“Growing up, nobody thought I could do it except myself and my family,” Burkett said. “So I know even my parents can remember the stories of me telling them I was going to be here. And no matter what happened, no matter how I had to do it, I was going to end up here somehow. It’s crazy how everything goes. Obviously, playing in my first game is crazy. But those are stories with my family that came to fruition Saturday night and are definitely something I’ll remember forever.”

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The path to Madison did not come easily for Burkett as an under-recruited high school football prospect. He earned college scholarship offers from Bowling Green, Central Michigan, Eastern Michigan, Miami (Ohio) and Northern Illinois — all programs in the Mid-American Conference. But a Power 5 scholarship offer eluded him.

Former Iowa offensive line coach Tim Polasek, who recruited the state of Wisconsin, once told Burkett that, because of his smaller stature, he would not play in the Big Ten (Burkett is listed on Wisconsin’s roster at 6 feet, 204 pounds). Wisconsin, meanwhile, initially pursued four-star quarterbacks Devin Brown and Brady Allen in the 2022 recruiting class.

But when Brown and Allen committed elsewhere, Chryst and former Badgers quarterbacks coach Jon Budmayr turned to their own state. Burkett earned a Wisconsin scholarship offer in January 2021 and committed a week later as the first pledge of the Badgers’ 2022 class.

“Being the quarterback here is not an easy job,” Burkett said. “Only one guy gets it every year. It was kind of that fuel in the back of my head in the dark days, maybe when my recruitment wasn’t going so well, that pride of, ‘I’m going to play at Wisconsin and I’m going to do it whatever way I have to.’

“It was also for my parents. They kind of reminded me of it, like, ‘You told us you were going to do it,’ so on the dark days, they’d always remind me, ‘You know you want to play quarterback at Wisconsin? You’ve got to sacrifice this. You’ve got to give up this.’ That always just stayed true in my mind.”

Burkett arrived at Wisconsin having experienced plenty of high school success. He led Franklin High to a 14-0 record and the Division 1 state championship, which he won at Camp Randall Stadium last November. He won the Dave Krieg Award as the top quarterback in Wisconsin. His arm talent regularly stood out during his prep career. He completed 69.3 percent of his passes over three seasons (446 of 644), which is a particularly high rate at the high school level. And while he passed for 6,483 career yards and 71 touchdowns, he also ran for 1,054 yards with 14 scores.

“I think he does a bunch of things well,” Mertz said. “I think that coming off asking a bunch of great questions, he does a great job of applying the things he learns and trying to take ownership of it. I think that’s pretty cool, especially that young. He’s pretty mobile. He can get around and make some moves and then throwing-wise, he’s accurate. So he does a great job of all those things.”

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Dike called Burkett “a student of the game,” while Badgers safety John Torchio described him as “mature beyond his years.” Those traits, coupled with his ability, already have Burkett on the rise at Wisconsin sooner than he envisioned. The goal now is to continue on his path and put in the work behind the scenes for when his time to lead the program arrives.

“I’ve still got to grow,” Burkett said. “I didn’t throw a pass, so I’ve still got to work on my reads and work in the pass game this week in practice and prepare for Washington State. Me, Deacon, Marshall and Graham, we’re all going to attack this week in preparation. We’re all going to watch the film, pick out what we can see on film, bring it to the meeting room and help each other get better.”

(Photo of Myles Burkett: Darren Lee / Cal Sport Media via AP Images)

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