Burnham Has Rolled With the Changes

AMES, Iowa - For Iowa State defensive coordinator and linebackers coach, Wally Burnham, the game of football has been the focus of his attention for decades. Aside from playing the game, he has been coaching for over forty years. Burnham has been coaching the Cyclone defense for the last three years where he has consistently molded his athletes into playmakers.

Over his career, Burnham has seen it all. Back when he was coaching in the mid-1960s, the wishbone offense was the show, and the spread offense had not been born. After the wishbone, teams focused on a traditional two-back offense with two wide receivers.

"Eventually that changed into the run and shoot style, which took off in the pros," Burnham said. "Now, with the spread offense so prevalent, it's a game of athleticism."

Burnham thinks that the world of football requires a different type of athlete compared to back when he played.

"Everyone has their own style, their own wrinkles, their own changes, but the spread offense all breaks down to one idea: let the athletes make the play," Burnham explained.

"You have to have athletes that can make plays in the open field, that's what the spread is," Burnham said. "It isn't about overpowering anyone, it's about putting your best athletes on the field and the opponent had better be able to match up with them athletically."

With the styles of offenses being so vast and different now, Burnham says the hardest part is getting the right people in the right place.

"Athletes now are bigger, faster, and stronger. Weight training and nutrition is something that wasn't very prevalent back in the day," Burnham said. "Training is year round now. Nebraska was a team that really started the lifting and nutrition early on in the late 1970s. I think athletes are better now because of that conditioning."

A noticeable change to Burnham has been the fact that the season runs the entire year now. Back in the day, athletes would go to school, play football, and then go home during the summers. Now, they stay at school year round and maintain workouts and in their routines.

As far as injuries are concerned, Burnham attribues the increase in ankle and knee injuries to the higher demands of today's game.

"It stems from the style of offense, now you have people in the open field making cuts," Burnham said. "The spread offense is getting people down the field faster and requiring rigorous cutting."

Burnham thinks that recruiting has become more challenging.

"The modern age of the internet has changed the perception of what's going on around the nation," Burnham said. "Who's going where, who's looking at who. And now you have all of these recruiting gurus that have websites that show everything."

The personal touch is the hardest thing to maintain in today's game. Burnham says it remain, year in and year out the most important phase of recruiting.

"Back in the younger days of my career, you could go out and recruit just about any time you wanted, now they have restrictions so you have to depend on the internet and Facebook and things like that," Burnham said. "We don't have as many days on the road as we used to, but recruiting is still about me having a relationship with the high school coach, with the athlete, and with their families."

In regards to the media, Burnham doesn't think it has changed a whole lot.

"Back when I was playing, there was media all the time, but you only had a limited amount of news resources back then," Burnham explained. "Now you can find just about anything you need to know on the internet, and even though the coverage has always been there, you relied on the newspapers back then. Now it's all on blogs and websites."

Wally Burnham has a very close relationship with his son, Iowa State's defensive tackles coach, Shane Burnham. The father-son duo have worked well together great, the elder Burnham said.

"It's something that we never thought would happen," Wally Burnham said. "We talked about it from the time we went into coaching until we got here. I've seen him grow and mature as a coach. Shane is a very organized guy and he takes care of all the details. We do butt heads but that's my job to get the best I possibly can out of them."

The Cyclones' defensive success this year is no surprise to Burnham or the rest of the coaches.

"I think we are playing as one, I think our guys understand the value of being a teammate," Burnham said. "You set a game plan and you put your players in a position to make a play. I think so far, we have done that well, and if we continue to do that well, then we will only get better and the chemistry will build."

Burnham's defensive unit will be heavily tested this coming weekend when the Cyclones face their first Big 12 rival, Texas Tech. The potent Red Raiders' offense has been averaging 230 yards running and 367 yards passing against their opponents this year, as well as putting up more than 50 points per game. Burnham and the Iowa State defense look to stifle Texas Tech's offensive show on Saturday, at 6 p.m. in Jack Trice Stadium. The game will be televised by Fox College Sports.

Iowa State University Athletics

Burnham Has Rolled With the Changes

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