Bobby Burton

Bobby Burton from OnTexasFootball joins the program to discuss his adventures with Craig and the state of Texas football recruiting.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
As I mentioned, one of thethings we wanted to do was have an
opportunity to visit with people around theSEC and also old friends. Old friends
is a good way to describe it. I'm now both by the way,
Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely, Bobby Burton on three Football with us
now and Bobby and I go backinto the early nineties we started doing recruiting

(00:24):
shows. Yet now I know weonly have the one segment together, but
I do think there is maybe justenough time for you to list all of
the agencies and you're in your realmas you as you discovered new frontiers and
really and I mean this genuinely andsincerely redefined the age and art and science

(00:48):
of the recruiting world. You know, I think it's funny. Thank you
for the it's true opening. Yeah, we've had we've had a good run
last twenty five years and thirty yearswith Craig and uh. We started Rivals,
we started twenty four to seven Sportsand then started on three about a
year and a half ago. Abouta year ago, actually, I decided

(01:10):
to start something called on Texas Football. On Texas Football sent on three Football,
I meant to say, on TexasFootball, Yeah, and it's it
is a Texas Texas football slash sportscommunity on the web, on YouTube and
a podcast. We also have awebsite called on Texas Football dot com.
And I just you know, I'vedone all the rivals and twenty four to

(01:34):
seven stuff, and I just feltlike I wanted to do something that was
in the audio video realm that wasa little bit different and more focused on
that, whereas the previous things I'vedone have really been web focused only,
and I mean, like message boardsand those are great. I'm not you
know, Yeah, I did itfor thirty years. Yeah, I did

(01:55):
it for thirty years. You also, it's kind of come full circle now
with On Texas Football and what wewere when we were doing the recruiting show
back in the nineties, because thatwas video, Yes it was video,
and we did the recruiting show andyou know, it was called Inside Southwest
Recruiting something like that. It wasthe biggest, like mouthful of words,

(02:16):
it was. But I going aroundin that van. I remember going around
in the van that was like theTexas High School. We had high school
extra van. Yep. I rememberdoing all that. And it's been fun.
I mean, we've been I wastalking about somebody today, Brian robas
In, the former Long One.Yes, he's he just gotta He just
bought a ranch apparently down in Belleville. Okay, I went through Belleville.

(02:39):
You and I've been to all thesesmall Texas towns, and it's part about
it what I love about the job. You know. One of my favorite
stories, and I told the storywhen I was on Bobby's podcast pretty recently,
because you have the podcast going too. Yep, this is I'm gonna
guess ninety five, maybe ninety sixright in that, right in that realm

(03:04):
Bobby and are doing the show.And first of all, ninety five we
had to do a National Signing Dayshow and we did that down in Houston,
and that was kind of haphazard andcrazy. And then I had to
get over to Audrey Court because Texaswas playing Rice in basketball that night,
so it was the first Wednesday inFebruary and all that other kind of stuff.
However, however, we go toDennison and there was a pretty highly

(03:30):
rated recruit, a young man bythe name of Dinard Whitfield. I think
he warned Humber forty nine. Yeah, and he was he was a wreck.
He was a wrecking crew. Hewas, he could do lots of
things. We lived in Dennison,So we go up to visit with him
to do this feature and we getout and it is in a not greatly

(03:54):
developed part of town. Would thatbe a fair way to describe it.
That would be perfectly described. Yeah. And it was a single family home
and I think he had a singlemom. Uh and she she welcomed us
with open arms. She was wonderfulto us. She was not happy with

(04:15):
his coaches at Dennison, saying theythey kept my baby's letters. She kept
talking about that about I wouldn't givehim his recruiting letter, and they were
trying to keep their kids focused onthe tech is Tennison Really they went to
the state finals three straight years ninetyfive through ninety seven, lost all three
times to the Mark, but wentthree straight years. But the thing that

(04:39):
stuck out, stuck out to Bobbyand me more than anything else, were
two large dogs that were on theporch. I think there were pit bulls.
They were imposing and we were like, uh, are we okay?
Oh yeah, they won't do anything, And they just looked at us like
what do you got going? Look, we've been around the road a little

(05:02):
bit in IL has certainly changed recruiting, by the way, And well that's
why I want you to come onto talk about a couple of different things.
One, how the entry into theSEC has affected if it has Texas
football recruiting and in IL and theportal and all of those things, all

(05:25):
of those things that we're not evenon our mind in nineteen ninety five or
whatever. All of these newer developmentsand stages of the collegiate football experience that
coaches now have to deal with.It's not just affected Texas in IL.
It's affected around the country and playersand coaches and even in particularly recruits in

(05:50):
their parents. I mean, youknow, there is now a market,
like a true market for recruits,not unlike there's a market for free agencies
in our free agency in the NFL. The you know, subtract to zero,
you know, and you get theright number. But my point being

(06:11):
is now Steve Sarkisian is not justa football coach anymore. It has to
be a general manager. And thatchanges his job, and that changes Brent
Venable's job, and Mike Elko andeverybody else's. They're no longer worried about
first and ten from your own forty. They're worried about, you know,
did I raise enough money in nilwhat's my you know, salary cap?

(06:36):
What is this going to look likenext year? And We're sitting here right
in the SEC media days and I'mlooking literally at Nick Saban and he's five
feet from us, Yes, heliterally is. And I think that those
kind of issues are part of probablywhy he's not coaching is not coaching this
year because it just changed the jobso much. And it's not that he

(06:58):
couldn't adapt. He he adapted hisentire life and did an unbelievable job.
It just it changed it fundamentally forsome guys that wanted it to be about
something else. And at the sametime, I'm sitting here and look at
the people here, the number ofwhat a thousand plus media members? Yea,
the sport has never been healthier rightever. And so while change is

(07:21):
upon us and happening, the gameis still the same and people still run
a root for the orange and white. They still they still want to,
you know, root for the crimsonand cream. That's still what it is.
And so as much as things change, things stay the same too.

(07:41):
And but so jobs for Steve Sarkeyjiand those guys, it just it increased
not only their responsibility but their scope. Yeah. Interesting, Bobby Burton on
Texas Football with us here on sportsRadio AM thirteen hundred. Soon you hear
whispers and stuff in you in yourear as always to the grindstone on this.

(08:05):
And I think people who follow therecruiting game look for the earliest little
bitty sign to make a judgment onthings good, bad and different. You
have learned over the years that uh, it's a it's a long process.
It is the old marathon, nota sprint. But what is your your
thought on where Texas football recruiting isfor twenty twenty five and in even twenty

(08:28):
twenty six and the the short termand projecting. I really like where Steve
Serkeysan's got the program period. Hehasn't. He's pretty I want to say
this the right way. He's hardheaded, but I don't know that he's
stubborn. And there's a little bitof difference there. Stubborn is Davos Sweeney
not taking a single guy in theportal. Hardheaded is believing you have it

(08:52):
the right way and going the rightway. And I think that he's done
that really well. I mean there'sa there's a suttle difference, but it's
meaningful. They've got there at fifteencommitments currently for this recruiting class. They
just picked up Nick Towns in thetight end that I really am. I
think he's a terrific player out ofspring to Caney. The guy that people

(09:13):
ask me who he reminded me of. It it's former long word. It's
both Scaife, Yeah, six threefive, two thirty. He Craig.
He played tight end, he played, he flexed out a lot, played
defensive end, played meat middle linebackera lot. You kind of described j
T Sanders I did. But here'sthe deal. He's a little bit more

(09:33):
physical than j T was. JTliked to, you know, go run
the jump ball drill, and that'sright. That's in high school. Nick
Towns runs a ten to nine uhand and you know what else was interesting?
He runs he's the wildcat quarterback firstas a tight end. Now there's
not many but Bo Scaife used toreturn kicks in high school. And so

(09:58):
that's the guy that he reminds meof of. You know what, seven
eight year pro after two knee surgeriesfor the long warns. But guys like
that, Texas is picking up.I don't want to say on the regular
I mean because I think he's atop ten, top fifteen player in the
state. But Sarks has done anice job. Another guy they just picked

(10:18):
up last week is Kate Phillips.So Kate Phillips is I'd say people have
him ranked around the top thirty inthe state. But this is let me
give you his data points and youtell me if this sounds like he might
be a little higher. He's sixtwo one five and he long jumped twenty
four foot seven inches. That doesn'tsound like a lower minute four. I

(10:45):
mean yes. And so Sark's donea great job I think of evaluation.
I think he's done a really goodjob of adapting to the new world order
of nil and portal. He's not, you know, forces, it's not
forcing his hand one way or theother. And so I'm very very high

(11:07):
on where he's taking this program inthe trie reactory of it. And to
tuck all of that off, what'sthe most important position on the football field.
Yeah, and quarterback. What he'sdone with the run unbelievable. I
mean, that's you know as wellas I did. I mean we're sitting
in you know, you get quotethat long ago. No, you get
quarterback right, and you got alot of it right, You get a

(11:31):
lot of it right. Let meask you this, baby, this is
one other fascinating thing when he describeSteve, when you talked about the hard
headed thing, and I think whatit speaks to and and Sark will say
this when folks ask him about recruitingratings or this or that, and he
said, uh, his words,he said, we don't worry about stars

(11:54):
or recruiting rate. He goes,we pay attention to them, but we
don't worry about it. We're lookingfor who who fits right tactically, athletically,
culturally, academically, everything into theprogram. Would that all fall into
the category of hardhead what you're talkingabout, Yeah, I mean you have
to. And that's why, likeI said, there's a there's a very

(12:16):
small difference between hard headed and stubborn. Yep, right, stubborn is where
you're just it's still a point offailure. I'm only going to continue to
do it my way because I believeit's going to It worked before and nothing
changes that, even though time changehardheaded is you can be moved off your
position after you learn that you're wrong. It's just a matter of learning,

(12:37):
you know. But whether that isgoing to work or not. And so
I admire people that are He's gota long history of success in college football,
whether it's as a head coach oras an assistant. And so you
appreciate guys that go to work everyday. I mean, last year,
one of the things I really thoughtwas tremendous about Steve Sarkisian. And you

(13:00):
and I both like to take ourvacations, right Steve s Arkesian, Uh,
you know, he didn't take asingle day vacation or like one one
or two days. Last was liketwo days. Yeah, and then he
came out and so but he wasso committed to the team because he felt
like he had something special, youknow what I mean. And that plays
out in recruiting, particularly because whileyour team may sense that if you stay

(13:24):
on your recruits like that, it'sgonna it'll pay dividends. It's like you're
you know, you can't go withoutgo a week without talking to those guys
and they think, oh, well, this other coach over here from you
know, East Texas, whatever isgiving me a little bit more love.
You must not like me as muchas well. No, I'm I'm literally
just taking a vacation with my familyright now. But a seventeen year old

(13:48):
doesn't necessarily see it that way.Yeah, it's a good point, it's
just not the way it goes.So on Texas football dot com is where
then go to subscribe, Yeah,go to subscribe on Texas Football become and
we call him an og by theway their otf ogs like, like you,
Creigg, You're an og. You'rean original gangster. I was just
saying, an old guy, youknow, That's what I was thinking that.

(14:09):
It's great to see you. Iappreciate you driving by. I appreciate
you, Creig. All right,Bobby Burton with us coming up, we're
gonna visit with the commissioner Greg.Thank you. We'll continue here from SEC
Football Media Days on Sports Radio AMthirteen under the zone of the iHeartRadio app.