Note: This story ran Feb. 5, 2009, one day after quarterback Taylor Martinez and I-back Rex Burkhead signed as part of the Nebraska football recruiting class.

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LINCOLN — Find a coach, teammate, fan or foe who crossed paths recently with Rex Burkhead or Taylor Martinez and listen. You're likely to hear a voice jump with excitement.

Stories of their football feats and cool-under-fire attitudes seem difficult to believe. Burkhead and Martinez, headliners Wednesday in Nebraska's new class of signees, transform normally level-headed people into gushing fans.

“You know you've made it when you're known by just one name,” said Tom Inman, Burkhead's former basketball coach at Plano (Texas) High School. “You know, like Kobe, Tiger, Magic. Around here, you don't have to say Burkhead. It's just Rex.”

Martinez, the quarterback at Corona (Calif.) Centennial High, handed Temecula Chaparral its only two losses last fall in a 14-game season.

“I'm telling you, that kid has something special,” Chaparral coach Tom Leach said. “It's a can't-miss situation for Nebraska. You are very, very lucky that he's coming out there.”

Burkhead, a running back, was arguably the top prep player in the football hotbed of Dallas-Fort Worth. The Dallas Morning News crowned him as the region's offensive player of the year.

Martinez was tabbed as the top player in California by MaxPreps and southern California's best by the Los Angeles Times.

Still, Texas snubbed Burkhead, and Southern California hardly noticed Martinez. Despite their achievements, some believe that Burkhead and Martinez have reached their pinnacle — that prep stardom won't translate at the next level.

It's a common assessment, actually, of the star player at a premier high school program.

“I hear it, too,” said Millard North coach Fred Petito, whose team has appeared in five Class A title games in Nebraska since 2002. “College coaches tend to think guys can get tapped out. They think you, as a high school coach, got everything out of him.

“I just shake my head and say, ‘OK, if that's how you're going to see it.' The thing about it is, those kind of guys have great work ethic, great toughness. I don't think you can go wrong with that.”

Neither Burkhead nor Martinez is much bigger than a typical walk-on. Burkhead measures 5-foot-11 and 200 pounds. Martinez, labeled as an athlete in Nebraska's signing class, is 6-1, 185.

But the Huskers believe that they have only just blossomed and that their intangible qualities will serve NU as well as their athletic skills. This is the brand of football player around whom Nebraska wants to build its program under coach Bo Pelini.

As for the doubters?

“I'll tell you right now, you don't ever doubt Rex Burkhead,” said Reid McCann, Burkhead's foe as a Harvard-bound defensive end at Lake Highlands High School in Dallas. “I did it before. He beat us by five touchdowns.”

Early dunker

McCann grew up with Burkhead. They played basketball in elementary school. Burkhead was dunking in junior high, though he stood no taller than 5-9.

“The rest of us were barely touching the net,” McCann said. “He's a freak of nature.”

But McCann failed to understand the essence of Burkhead until 2007.

The story starts, actually, in 2006. Burkhead, after playing varsity basketball and football as a freshman, started as a sophomore at quarterback for Plano.

McCann earned his first career start that fall against Burkhead's team and talked all kinds of trash to his buddy. Lake Highlands won 14-3. Burkhead didn't say much about it for a whole year until they played again. This time, he ran for four touchdowns in the first half as Plano led 41-0 en route to a 35-point victory.

“Call me in four years, because I'm sure people will doubt that he's going to do it in the NFL. But he'll always prove you wrong,” McCann said. “I'm a huge Rex Burkhead fan, because I know that no matter what, he wants it more than you do.”

Burkhead amassed 6,373 all-purpose yards in his career, rushing for more than 1,700 as a junior and a senior. Both seasons ended with playoff losses to powerhouse Euless Trinity, 30-27 in overtime and 42-35.

He played the first game against Trinity in the 5A semifinals with a cracked rib, suffered a week earlier during a performance against Dallas Skyline that remains legendary. Burkhead returned a punt 64 yards untouched against perhaps the fastest team in the state.

The highlight is readily available on YouTube. He also threw for a touchdown and rushed for one.

Those who know Burkhead credit his family for all of it. Mother Robyn is a teacher. His father, Rick, works as an investigator and played collegiately at Eastern Kentucky. Brother Ryan plays defensive end at Harvard.

Inman coached Plano to a 5A championship in basketball during Burkhead's freshman season. The coach moved last year to Arlington's Bowie High School, where kids in the hall, upon learning he came from Plano, asked him regularly if he really knew Burkhead.

Such occurrences happen elsewhere.

Another longtime Burkhead friend, Lauren Wickersham, is a classmate at Plano. She knew Burkhead before all of this craziness started. So maybe it's why Wickersham paid notice, Inman said, when approached at a church camp after others learned that she had rubbed shoulders with the football star.

“Some girl was just completely in awe that she knew Rex,” Inman said. “She was amazed that Rex talks to regular people.”

Taylor Magic

Martinez reportedly signs his text messages with the phrase “Taylor Magic.”

And he backs it up on the field. He led Centennial to a 15-0 record and a No. 2 national rating in USA Today.

He played his final high school game six weeks ago in California's Division I championship against Concord De La Salle. Before encountering Martinez, De La Salle had lost one playoff game in 17 years. He threw for 243 yards and ran for a touchdown as Centennial won 21-16 to deny De La Salle coach Bob Ladouceur his state-record 345th victory.

Leach, the coach at Chaparral, feels for Ladouceur.

“The difference between us and (Centennial) being the state champion is him,” Leach said. “He's the only reason.”

Martinez traveled a road to stardom different from Burkhead's. At Norco (Calif.) High School, he was elevated to the varsity squad as a 150-pound freshman. Martinez transferred as a junior to San Bernardino Cajon and moved again a year later — this time to Centennial, which faces a more grueling schedule than Cajon.

“We played them the first game of the year, and I wasn't familiar with him,” Leach said. “Honestly, I thought going into the game that he was going to have a rude awakening.”

Martinez completed 59.5 percent of his passes during the perfect season for 2,994 yards and 28 touchdowns. Some in California describe Martinez as the state's best high school quarterback since Matt Leinart, who won the Heisman Trophy at USC in 2004.

“There are some kids that you know nothing is beyond them,” Norco coach Todd Gerhart said. “He's always been older in his head. When we played them this year, we tried everything. We tried blitzing the world. We did everything we could to shake him up, and it didn't work.”

Coaches rave about Martinez's arm strength. Others can't get over his speed. Most all of them believe that Martinez ought to get a chance to play quarterback at Nebraska.

Martinez, according to Centennial coach Matt Logan, was born to play the position.

“He's so poised, but he's the quiet, confident type,” Logan said. “We changed our offense because of him. When it came down to crunch time at the end, we tried to utilize the QB run game and throw the ball a little more, too.”

A normal kid

Neither Burkhead nor Martinez returned a message this week seeking comment for this story. Neither was likely bothered that Nebraska coach Bo Pelini didn't mention his name on Wednesday at the Huskers' signing day press conference.

“You don't know how much Rex would just love to be a kid named Rex from Texas,” Inman said. “Those days are gone, but he is still so amazingly uncomfortable with all the attention.”

Gerhart has remained close to his former player since Martinez left his program.

“He's not going to tell you how good he is,” the Norco coach said. “That's just the way he is. He was at my house on Super Bowl Sunday and probably said 10 words.”

Martinez committed to Nebraska in August. Late in the recruiting season, UCLA and Oregon showed interest. Martinez did not reciprocate. Still, it's hard to imagine they would be anywhere near Lincoln next season if Texas and USC had recruited Burkhead and Martinez with the same determination as Nebraska.

Inman said it's “ridiculous” the Longhorns didn't pursue Burkhead. As for Martinez, nobody's sweating it.

“He's just a normal kid,” Gerhart said. “I mean, how many people would give Doug Flutie a scholarship?”

Texas and USC's loss, perhaps in the end, will prove to be Nebraska's gain.

Contact the writer:

402-444-1031, mitch.sherman@owh.com

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