Rutgers football's Michael Burton had FB mentality even as West Morris star

PISCATAWAY – Long before he was a fullback, Michael Burton thought like one.

In a different age, Burton – the third-year starter and redshirt senior captain for the Rutgers football team – was the top running back for West Morris High School, where he gained a school-record 4,498 all-purpose yards, including 1,769 with 20 touchdowns on 200 rushes as a NJSIAA sectional title-winning senior.

Yet even then Burton carried himself in a way more fitting of his current role than a starring one.

"Michael was always a very selfless guy," said Shane Thompson, who played fullback for West Morris during Burton's senior year and now is a linebacker at Holy Cross. "He was always giving credit to his teammates. He would break a long run, make a real nice play, and be the first one to come back to the huddle and say, 'Hey, good job guys. Good push O-line.' He was the ultimate team player."

It's the same thing that Rutgers coaches and teammates say now about Burton, whose contributions to the season-opening win against Washington State included a block on Paul James' 56-yard touchdown run out of the bunch formation, a career-best 34-yard reception and four special teams tackles.

"If you were building a football player, you would build Michael Burton," coach Kyle Flood said. "You'd love to build 100 of him because everything he does he does it to the best of his ability. Tremendous work ethic, a really smart football player, has always been a great leader by example and now he's grown into even more of a vocal leader as he's gotten older. He's got a tremendous skill set for a fullback."

Athletic fullbacks are nothing new at Rutgers, where former star halfback Brian Leonard once moved to the position to make room for Ray Rice. It is no coincidence that Burton holds Leonard in high regard and even imitated his patented "Leonard Leap" – hurdling a would-be tackler – as part of his 34-yard catch.

"I'm never going to get up as high as him," Burton said. "I do watch film of him. That's something that he does. But we rep drills and things like that in practice where we do different things to avoid defenders and that's one of the drills that (running backs) coach Norries Wilson puts in and he does a great job helping us out with that. When you continue to rep it and rep it and rep it, it comes natural."

Burton, a former walk-on, didn't start against Washington State because Rutgers opened in a formation with three wide receivers, one tight end and a halfback, but he had started 14 of the previous 17 games when healthy.

"He is probably the X-factor in every game just because of what he does in the run game and the threat that he is in the pass game," quarterback Gary Nova said. "He's probably got some of the best hands on the team as a fullback, which is not something you see every day. He is very versatile and Coach (Ralph) Friedgen likes to move him around and use him a lot. I think he is going to do a lot of good things for us."

With Burton leading the way, Rutgers rushed for 215 yards and three touchdowns on 43 carries against Washington State.

"I think I've always had the mentality to be unselfish because football is a team game," Burton said. "If you are the star guy or you are not the star guy, you can't do it by yourself. You need everyone. We have a lot of unselfish guys. When you have a bunch of unselfish guys who work hard you are going to see success."

Thompson, who had four tackles in Holy Cross' season-opening loss, is glad to hear Burton's dirty work is drawing notice. As he knows all too well, fullbacks are closer to offensive linemen than halfbacks – like Rutgers' 2013 First-Team All-American Conference performer Paul James – on the publicity scale.

"It's much more rewarding as a fullback when you know that you have a running back that is going to come up to you after a play and pat you on the back and say, 'Hey, good job,' " he said. "It inspires you to go the extra mile to get that block and spring a guy like Mike. He is always going to have your back in a game and he is going to be the first one on the sidelines to congratulate for getting that block."

Staff Writer Ryan Dunleavy: rdunleav@gannett.com