Burnsie, Davey Nelson, and Tubby Raymond all played for Fritz Crisler. All three took Fritz's "block down, kick-out" blocking schemes and fondness for deceptive ball-handling and updated them to create the Wing-T offense. Ultimately Tubby became the most identified with the offense due to his long and successful tenure at Delaware, but all three deserve credit. Of course, that offense continues to influence football today, both as a stand-alone scheme (primarily at the HS and, ocassionally, D3 level) and in its many adaptations at every level of football.
Burnsie was also Evashevski's top recruiter on his Iowa staff as those teams always drew on talent from the Detroit area. He had the bad timing to follow Evie as HC (Evie knew when to get out just as Iowa's talent was dropping off) and, after he got fired there, he ended up with the Packers and then the Vikings. He was the OC throughout Grant's tenure and he played to his team's strengths, developing a dink-and-dunk game that Bill Walsh would incorporate into what became the West Coast offense. Eventually Burnsie became the Vikes' HC and got them to the championship game against the 'Skins, who went on to win the SB when Wade Wilson's goal-line pass to Darrin Nelson fell incomplete.
If you ever had a chance to hear Burnsie speak, you didn't forget it. He was as funny as he was, uhh, unfiltered. He loved coaching, his players loved him, and he loved Michigan.
RIP Burnsie
Burnsie was also Evashevski's top recruiter on his Iowa staff as those teams always drew on talent from the Detroit area. He had the bad timing to follow Evie as HC (Evie knew when to get out just as Iowa's talent was dropping off) and, after he got fired there, he ended up with the Packers and then the Vikings. He was the OC throughout Grant's tenure and he played to his team's strengths, developing a dink-and-dunk game that Bill Walsh would incorporate into what became the West Coast offense. Eventually Burnsie became the Vikes' HC and got them to the championship game against the 'Skins, who went on to win the SB when Wade Wilson's goal-line pass to Darrin Nelson fell incomplete.
If you ever had a chance to hear Burnsie speak, you didn't forget it. He was as funny as he was, uhh, unfiltered. He loved coaching, his players loved him, and he loved Michigan.
RIP Burnsie
