Sam Burt saw improvement on DL, taking leadership role

The defensive line lost several players from last year’s team and that means Sam Burt is one of the most experienced players returning.

Burt joined the program in 2017 and played special teams his first two seasons. Last year he found himself in the rotation on the defensive line and now might be considered one of the elder statesmen up front.

With so many snaps gone from last year, he has turned into a leader.

“I'm trying to give them service leadership which is something that I believe in,” Burt said. “I'm trying to get, and instructing them in a way that benefits them and the group I think is important. There's a lot of guys that I've been really impressed with taking a leadership role.”

Returning with Burt from last year’s line is Caleb Sampson and Malcolm Lee. He’s getting help from them working with the younger players.

“I think it just combines with how we work together as a group, which reflects obviously it's not just my leadership,” Burt said. “We have other guys that are older guys like Caleb Sampson and Malcolm Lee, who also do a great job in taking on leadership roles.”

The Kansas defense ranks last in the Big 12 stopping opponents on third down. That has been one of the biggest area of focus because teams are keeping drives too easily.

Burt said they have gone and looked at everything how to improve one of the most important statistics a defense can have.

“I would say the biggest things that we're looking to address and improve is definitely on third down, trying to get off the field,” he said. “I think that's always a big emphasis. You don't want to be out there longer than you need to. I think that's pretty obvious, but also just the little things, we're looking at releases, we're looking at just simple technique.”

One other area they are looking to improve is pass rush. The defense ranks last in the Big 12 in sacks per game. Coastal Carolina isn’t a volume passing team, so the chances weren’t there as much as they will be in the Big 12. But Burt did see improvement against Baylor.

“That's what we're working on this week is keeping that ball rolling and keep getting better and understanding more about what our roles are on third down and passing situations in general to keep repping it,” Burt said. “I think that's to know the compounding and how we can keep it going for longer throughout the game.”

Burt is lining up as the nose tackle full-time this year. Last year he spent time as an end and over the ball. He likes the players who are behind him including Marcus Harris and DaJon Terry.

“Marcus and DT are taking huge strides to be very prevalent in our D-line group,” he said. “And we have a lot of younger freshmen who are just out of high school who are taking really good strides and hopefully you'll see their names here in a little bit.”