Coming off a season where he had 48 total tackles (39 solo), including four tackles for loss, one-and-a-half sacks, a forced fumble and two interceptions in 12 games, West Virginia senior safety Aubrey Burks will be utilized in multiple positions this upcoming season for the Mountaineers.
Burks was one of West Virginia’s highest-graded defensive players week in and week out, but missed a couple of games after a scary injury in WVU’s week four win over TCU. He plays primarily as a safety, but will also see playing time at SPEAR in 2024.
“We’re going to play Aubrey (Burks) some more at SPEAR. You know, he played a little bit there in the bowl game and so we’ve used him there in some sub packages but we’re going to continue to dual train him and he’ll get he probably get more reps playing spear than he will at deep safety during the Spring,” head coach Neal Brown said. “And [why] I’m excited to see Aubrey down there is because he’s proven that he can come off the edge and Blitz and we weren’t as good at that last year.”
In his career, the 5-foot-11 defensive back has eight-and-a-half tackles for loss and two-and-a-half sacks, showing his ability to get into the backfield and make a play. As a team, the Mountaineers had 33 sacks last season, with Jared Bartlett, who has since transferred to Cincinnati, leading the way with four-and-a-half.
“Aubrey’s a guy that just going to going to swing around and play some multiple positions for us,” defensive coordinator Jordan Lesley said.
Burks, entering his senior season will be relied on heavily to lead the defense and make big plays with his high motor, athleticism and feel for the game.
“I will play both CAT safety and SPEAR position, probably for mainly spring, my focus will be at SPEAR. Mainly because I played CAT safety all last year and the year before, ” Burks said. “I’m very twitchy, I think my biggest skill playing football is my IQ. I understand the game a lot and so going through these two days (of spring ball), I haven’t blitzed much but a couple of the times I have, trying to get around Wyatt Milum, he’s probably a top two, first or second-round pick, so it’s pretty hard, but he’s definitely getting me better and so far I’ve been liking it (practicing SPEAR, blitzing).”
