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| Joe Burzynski (center, image via MGoBlog) |
Burzynski attended Carlsbad (CA) Carlsbad and was not recruited out of high school.
COLLEGE
Burzynski walked on to Michigan's football program for Rich Rodriguez's final year in 2010. Too small and light to play, he redshirted. Still very light as a redshirt freshman, he played backup left guard in four games. He finally hit a reasonable playing weight (295 lbs.) in 2012 and saw action as a backup in eight games. During the 2013 season that saw an array of players moving about on the offensive line, Burzynski played in four games and finally earned a start against Indiana . . . and promptly tore his ACL, missing the rest of the season. As a fifth year senior in 2014, he played in just two games, one of those a start when Graham Glasgow was suspended for the season opener.
CAREER STATISTICS
2 starts, 18 games played
AWARDS
Academic All-Big Ten (2011-2014)
SUMMARY
Burzynski seemed like one of those players who was around forever, and then he practically disappeared as a senior. In 2012 and 2013, it seemed like he was a play or two away from getting in the game. This past season he was an afterthought. It used to seem quite rare that walk-ons were elevated to starter status, but we have seen that become a trend in the past several years, including Nick Sheridan, Kevin Leach, Jordan Kovacs, Graham Glasgow, Ryan Glasgow, and Burzynski occasionally. Not much can be said for Burzynski as a player, whom Brady Hoke seemed to love but was just so-so as a contributor at the Michigan level. He generally seemed to know his assignments, but he was not strong enough or big enough to get much movement. Kudos to him for making a five-year college career out of football.
PROJECTION
Burzynski's football career is presumably finished.
I know that he was only a walk-on backup, but I am very proud of this kid for being Academic All-Big Ten for 3 years in a row (maybe a fourth for 2014-15?) while playing football full time. That's a big achievement and looks like he has a bright future in front of him. I had good grades in college but that probably wouldn't have happened had I played football full time. Very proud of him.
ReplyDeleteActually college athletes stay on campus all year taking classes so that during their 'season' they don't need to take a normal full load of 15, 16 + credit hours. With the classes stretched out through the year one could say more time might be afforded to concentrate on said classes.
DeleteI know they take it easy on the fall. Even with that, it's a lot of time commitment year around. it's quite a feat imo.
DeleteJoey did well considering his limited abilities. That said, hope we don't need to use walk on's again, shows our recruiting has went astray somehow/ somewhere
ReplyDelete