Burlsworth finalists feel connection to award

Baker Mayfield accepts the 2016 Burlsworth Trophy on Monday, Dec. 5, 2016, at the Northwest Convention Center in Springdale. Mayfield, Oklahoma junior quarterback, won the award for the second straight year.
Baker Mayfield accepts the 2016 Burlsworth Trophy on Monday, Dec. 5, 2016, at the Northwest Convention Center in Springdale. Mayfield, Oklahoma junior quarterback, won the award for the second straight year.

— Two of the finalists at Monday's Burlsworth Trophy presentation are also finalists for some of college football's most prestigious awards.

Oklahoma quarterback Baker Mayfield, who won the Burlsworth Trophy for the second straight year, is a finalist for the Heisman Trophy, Davey O'Brien Award and Maxwell Award. Northwestern receiver Austin Carr is a finalist for the Biletnikoff Award.

But all three finalists said winning the Burlsworth Trophy would be akin to winning any of those other awards.

"I think this is the best college award given," said Luke Falk, Washington State's quarterback and a two-time finalist for the Burlsworth Trophy.

If that's hard to believe, it may be because you've never played in the finalists' shoes.

The Burlsworth finalists feel a personal connection to the award, which is presented to the nation's best player who began his career as a non-scholarship walk-on. A win, or even an invitation to the award banquet, isn't so much a reward for a great season as it is a validation of a career full of hard work.

"Being named the best receiver in the country, that is a huge honor to receive, but the Burlsworth Trophy, you've had to overcome so much adversity," Carr said. "You've had to really earned people's respect to get this when they probably didn't really respect you at first.

"It's an uphill battle just to get here."

Walk-ons play a vital role at every football program. With teams limited to 85 scholarships, at least 20 walk-ons are needed to fill the 105-man football rosters each year.

But the life of a walk-on is not always easy. Coaches' day-to-day expectations of walk-ons are the same as for scholarship players, but without some of the benefits.

Arkansas coach Bret Bielema recalled walk-ons being treated second-class when he arrived as the Razorbacks' head coach in 2012. Bielema said walk-ons had to pay inflated costs for mandatory team meals and received half the number of complimentary game tickets as scholarship players.

Many walk-ons also take on student loan debt or depend on non-athletic scholarships to play high-level college football, which can lead to more rigorous time demands away from the field.

"It's got so much more meaning than one season," Mayfield said of the Burlsworth Trophy. "It's got the background of everybody that's involved in your life. It's the road you face - not about where you're at today, but how you got there and all the things you conquered."

The relative hardships that walk-ons face can build a strong work ethic that can cause them to exceed their predicted success. Marty Burlsworth, older brother of the award's namesake, Brandon, and executive director of the Burlsworth Foundation, said there are more walk-ons than first-round NFL draft picks in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Excluding Mayfield, the past four Burlsworth winners are on NFL rosters, as are four other former finalists for the award.

"Walk-ons are becoming a bigger deal," Mayfield said. "They're starting to get more recognition for guys that work a lot harder."

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