There's no one head to cut off of No. 1 Oregon's defensive front
Oregon lost its Ace of Spades and kept winning hands.
In the run-up to the Ohio State game, Jordan Burch was the story. Oregon’s senior defensive end was averaging a sack a game coming into that mega-matchup with the Buckeyes, serving as Exhibit A for an Oregon team that’s bigger, faster and stronger in the trenches than it’s ever been.
These Oregon Ducks don’t get pushed around, and it felt like the time was right to learn a little bit more about the former 5-star recruit from South Carolina.
So I called up his high school coach Erik Kimrey to see what I could find.
Kimrey, a former South Carolina quarterback, oversaw Burch for three seasons at Hammond School and couldn’t stop talking about the guy. He told me he knew Burch was going to be something special from the second time he took a snap as a sophomore. Burch started full-time as a defensive end, but Kimrey would also play him at tight end, running back, receiver and as a wildcat quarterback.
“He was such an athlete and such a weapon that I just felt like I’d be stupid not to incorporate him,” Kimrey said. “It felt like you had the Ace of Spades every single time.”
That — coupled with the imagery Kimrey provided of the, at the time, 6-foot-6, 270-pounder starting at point guard for the school’s basketball team — gave me a decent starting point for a story.
So I got off the phone, opened up my computer and…immediately saw the reports of Burch going down in practice.
Well, shoot.1