FSU Football: Brian Burns living up to the preseason hype

FSU football had a lot of hype in the preseason with several players standing out in spring and fall camp.

FSU football fans are used to it by now. Players and coaches spend a lot of time hyping up certain players during spring and fall camps.

A lot of times in the past it’s been the true freshman wide receiver that’s catching all the attention at practice.

He’s making plays and learning the playbook at a quicker rate than usual and is going to have a shot to make an impact when the real games begin.

The season begins and we don’t hear that name called at all during the entire season it seems.

That hasn’t been the case with junior defensive end Brian Burns who likely received the most praise from players and coaches during spring and fall camps.

The thing is it’s not that Brian Burns was an unproven player as he was an impact player as a true freshman with 9.5 sacks. However, we saw that number decrease as a sophomore but did see overall growth and production in his game.

That’s why it was interesting to see what he’d do this fall with two years under his belt. He’s added some size and had experience to boot, but we were not quite sure what we’d get in his junior year even though he had a lot of hype in the preseason.

Thoughts

Brian Burns’ draft stock was already near first round status, but the production he’s had through six games is certainly getting folks attention. He’s tied for fourth in the nation with seven sacks and has forced three fumbles in six games.

The crazy this is he’s already halfway to his total tackles number from last year and is crushing it in tackles for loss.

Burns has 13.5 tackles for loss in 2017 and already had 9.5 though six games and almost all of his production has come against Power 5 competition.

He said his goal at the beginning of the year was to break Peter Boulware’s single season sack record at FSU football (19).

He’s not quite on pace to do that but he’s likely to finish with double-digit sacks and rated as one of the best defensive ends in the nation at the end of the season.