As good as he was last season, Treylon Burks could be in store for an even better 2021 campaign.
Despite missing all of one game and most of another, the Warren native hauled in 51 passes for 820 yards and seven touchdowns as a sophomore.
That earned him second-team All-SEC accolades and has led to some serious preseason hype heading into his junior year, as he was a preseason first-team All-SEC selection, has landed on multiple watch lists and is already a projected first-round pick in some 2022 NFL mock drafts.
Burks would likely meet all of those expectations if he just replicates what he did last year, but head coach Sam Pittman told reporters at SEC Media Days last week that he believes his star receiver will take his game to another level because of the work he’s put in this offseason.
“What he needed to do to become a standout, an unbelievable player, is get in better shape, and we talked to him about that,” Pittman said. “Just going out there and hunting them hogs wasn’t really getting him in the greatest shape in the world, so he had to do more than just that. He has done that. He’s lost some weight, he looks good, he’s more confident – things of that nature.”
In an interview on McElroy and Cubelic in the Morning, Pittman described Burks as “just a country guy from Warren” who enjoys – coincidentally enough – hunting hogs.
After talking with him during the offseason, though, it sounds like he bought in and spent some more time in the weight room.
“Certainly we can make an excuse of COVID, but there were players out there that were in good shape,” Pittman said. “He has gotten into really, really good shape this summer. I think he’s going to have an outstanding year.”
Considering what he did last year, that should be a scary statement for opposing defenses and their coordinators to read heading into this season. But what, exactly, might that look like from a statistical standpoint?
The numbers Burks compiled last year came in only nine games, and that includes the Mississippi State game in which he played just 12 snaps – and caught just a 10-yard pass – before leaving with an injury.
Take out that game and Burks had 810 receiving yards in eight games, meaning he averaged more than 100 per game. If that average is extrapolated across a 12-game schedule, it’d come out to 1,215 yards – which would rank second in UA history.
However, that doesn’t factor in the fact that he did it against an all-SEC schedule and will have four non-conference games in 2021. The Razorbacks’ three previous 1,000-yard receivers – Anthony Lucas in 1998, Jarius Wright in 2011 and Cobi Hamilton in 2012 – saw their yardage outputs increase by an average of 51.4 percent in non-conference games compared to SEC games.
If Burks sees a similar increase, he’d rack up 613 yards in the games against Rice, Texas, Georgia Southern and UAPB. Add that to last year’s eight-game SEC total and it comes out to 1,423 yards. Not only would that shatter Hamilton’s UA record of 1,335, but it would also ranks among the 10 highest single-season totals in SEC history.
That also doesn’t account for the loss to reliable No. 2 target Mike Woods to the transfer portal or the fact that he had 206 yards in the lone 2020 game started by KJ Jefferson, this year’s projected starting quarterback.
With hands so big that they require 5XL gloves, Burks could also make a run at Arkansas’ single-season receptions (90, Hamilton, 2012) and receiving touchdowns (12, Wright, 2011) records.
“He’s got the biggest hands you’ll ever see,” Pittman said. “I know when it gets around him, he snatches it up pretty nice. Caught a really nice pass in the corner of the end zone against Ole Miss last year (that was) very difficult.”