FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — True freshman wide receiver Treylon Burks had a big role on Saturday for Arkansas against Kentucky its something that may be expanding in the future.
Against the Wildcats, Burks had one rush for 11 yards, caught two passes for 24 yards and took a punt back 26 yards. On Monday, Chad Morris talked about Burks and possibly expanding his role going forward.
“It kind of goes back to what we were saying,” Morris said. “We as coaches have to do a great job of making things clearer for our players. He’s extremely talented. Obviously when you get the ball in his hands, he’s electric.
“One of the things as a coach we really have to be careful of is to understand that he’s just a freshman and not to overload him. I think that we can add more to him, but we can’t overload him. We’re still working on getting aligned correctly, on and off the line of scrimmage. We’ve taken great steps in that direction, but I do believe that, yes, there are different ways that we can, as coaches, find ways to get him the ball, absolutely, without overloading him.”
Burks gave Arkansas to win the game with them trailing 17-13 early in the fourth quarter. Kentucky’s Max Duffy punted 54 yards and Burks returned it 26 yards to the Wildcat 29.
On first down, Arkansas had a trick play called when quarterback Ben Hicks lateraled to Burks who was looking to throw down the field to Cheyenne O’Grady. When O’Grady was covered then Burks raced 11 yards for a first down to the 18. Hicks then found Burks for 15 yards to the the three. Two plays later, Rakeem Boyd scored a touchdown.
Joe Craddock, Arkansas’ offensive coordinator, also talked about Burks and a possible expanded role.
“I’ve said that a lot, I’m with you on that,” Craddock said. “We got to get him the ball as many times as we can. He’s obviously proven to be a very dynamic player with the ball in his hand. You see him with the punt return, he was kind of toying with a guy and then hit the sideline. He’s very dynamic. We tried a couple of things the other night to get him the ball, it didn’t work out very good. But, we are consistently thinking of ways to get him the ball and just be creative.
“Again, he is young. He’s still trying to learn how to line up. You saw the other night too, at the very end, right at the snap he’s still trying to get on the ball. We are still trying to add some things for him to get him the ball, but also just try to keep it simple as we can so he can just go play. That’s the main thing.”
In five games this season, Burks has 15 receptions for 255 yards. He has averaged 11.3 yards on 10 punt returns. He has the one rush for 11 games. Burks missed the San Jose State game with a concussion.
