BLACKSBURG, Va. — Football usually is a topic of conversation at the Vienna Inn in Vienna, Va., just outside the Beltway by D.C., and things weren’t any different when Dan Burmeister returned to his high school stomping grounds for an Oakton High alumni event a few months back.
His son, Braxton, was a 6-foot-1, 204-pound former four-star quarterback recruit looking for a new home after deciding to transfer from Oregon. Braxton and Dan had done their research on a bunch of schools, including many on the East Coast.
Advertisement
That list didn’t include Virginia Tech. To be honest, the Burmeisters hadn’t even thought of it until an old friend of Dan’s suggested the Hokies. The old friend happened to be a former Pop Warner coach of Jack Tyler, an ex-Tech linebacker who also is an Oakton High alum and currently is a quality control assistant for the Hokies.
Once the connection was made, the possible pairing started to make more and more sense for a variety of reasons. Though the Burmeisters live in La Jolla, Calif., in the San Diego suburbs, Braxton was born in Leesburg, Va., before moving west at the age of 1. His family’s all East Coasters, including his grandfather, Walt, who did ROTC and was an engineer at Virginia Tech back in the day. Justin Fuente’s and Brad Cornelsen’s quarterback-friendly offense was just what Burmeister was looking for, and the more film he watched, the better he felt about the system.
“That’s a big thing for me, and to see them work with so many different guys and get them to do great things,” Burmeister said. “It seems like all the guys that they have put up big numbers as well and do great things in that offense, so that’s definitely appealing.”
A few months later, the transfer was a done deal.
“I will tell you this: Brax has a Ph.D. level of understanding football,” Dan said. “He might not understand anything else, but Brax is a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week football guy. And I think that’s why he has so much respect and love for Virginia Tech because he sees the lunch pails and Bud Foster and the whole approach. And most kids, that’s not the sexiest thing in the world. For him, he’s just falling in love.”
A crafted quarterback
Dan Burmeister wasn’t keen on his sons playing football at an early age. He knew all about the sport. He and his brother, Doug, played college ball, Dan as a safety at North Carolina in the mid-’80s in the years right after Lawrence Taylor and Doug as a bruising running back for Maryland a few years earlier.
Advertisement
Dan went on to play as a replacement player for the Redskins during the players’ strike in 1987 after being cut in training camp that summer. He helped Washington go 3-0 from weeks 4-6 that season, with wins against the Cardinals, Giants and Cowboys, getting a Super Bowl ring for his efforts 30 years later after an ESPN “30-for-30” filmmaker highlighted the replacement players’ contributions.
Still, he preferred that both of his boys, Sage and Braxton, play other sports when they were young and Braxton obliged, actually being more of a basketball player growing up. Eventually, though, both followed their dad’s path, with aid from their mom, Angela, who actually organized the La Jolla Pop Warner association so they could play. Dan was all-in, though he wasn’t sure how to approach it.
“I talked to some people about what do I do,” he said. “I’m going to want to coach him. I’m going to want to teach him. I want to train him. And everyone’s suggestion was that there are a lot of resources out here in San Diego that can help you so that you can be a father first.”
So while he focused on the athletic aspect of his sons’ development, he got them the best tutoring he could find. For Braxton, that meant quarterback coaches aplenty. Braxton has worked with former NFL quarterbacks Akili Smith and Jeff Garcia, both of whom live in San Diego. (In fact, as a ninth-grader, Braxton became an instant fan of a certain quarterback after getting an up-close look at him when he worked with Garcia: former Hokie Tyrod Taylor.) He also worked with ex-North Carolina quarterback Scott Stankavage and former Howard coach Steve Wilson.
“It was a process, for sure, in Pop Warner,” Burmeister said. “I used to get sick before my games because I was so nervous. And kind of as I grew up and got bigger and stronger and started growing into my body and getting more athletic, I started to feel more comfortable with it.”
Advertisement
Eventually, he took off, much like his brother, a two-sport star at La Jolla who went on to play receiver, first at FCS member Idaho State and then at Division II Humboldt State (Calif.). Braxton followed suit and set California Interscholastic Federation San Diego Section career records at La Jolla Country Day in total yards (14,972), passing yards (11,512), passing touchdowns (127) and completions (853) in his four varsity seasons. He accounted for 80 touchdowns and 371.1 yards per game as a senior, leading his team to a CIF Division 5-A runner-up finish.
Plenty of colleges took note along the way.
On to Oregon and out
The Burmeisters got a sense of how in-demand Braxton was as a recruit when he and his mother went to a football camp at Florida when he was a freshman. Then-Gators coach Will Muschamp asked them into his office to talk about his future and offered a scholarship. Arizona followed. Thus, before Burmeister was a high school sophomore, he had two major offers.
He committed to Arizona not long after. But when Willie Taggart was hired by Oregon and brought his RPO offense to the Ducks, Burmeister took note. Oregon got on him right before signing day in 2017 and flipped him.
Burmeister wasn’t walking into an easy situation. He was fifth on the depth chart when he arrived, with Justin Herbert a star in the making. But after the Ducks started 4-1, Herbert broke his collarbone. Injuries and attrition had left the quarterback room depleted, so Burmeister got the call, just three months after he enrolled. The Tuesday of the first week he started was the first time he took first-team snaps.
“So he was basically going from a redshirt year of watching and learning from Justin to, ‘OK, you’re the guy,’ ” Dan said.
The games went about as you’d expect. No. 11 Washington State hammered the Ducks 33-10 in Burmeister’s debut. Next was No. 23 Stanford, which won 49-7. After losing to UCLA, Oregon pulled out a 41-20 win against Utah, but Burmeister’s fifth start was a 38-3 loss to No. 12 Washington.
Advertisement
He went 44-for-77 (57 percent) for 330 yards, with two touchdowns and six interceptions in seven games, with a 1-4 mark as a starter.
“I feel like in that moment, obviously you want to play and everyone wants to play,” Burmeister said. “And then once I got on the field, I really was enjoying and really just trying to make the most of my opportunities. It was kind of right in the middle of the toughest part of our schedule. … It was kind of tough to jump in and not really have any playing time at all into that schedule.
“So now, looking back at it, obviously I wish I could have developed a little bit more, but that kind of was my developing, so I feel like I’m ready to go play now because of that experience. So I guess I wouldn’t change a thing.”
An opportunity at Virginia Tech
When Taggart left Oregon after the 2017 season to head to Florida State, Burmeister began to reevaluate his situation. He thought new coach Mario Cristobal and his staff preferred quarterbacks who were pocket passers. And when Herbert decided to return for his senior season in 2019 season rather than go pro, Burmeister thought a change would be good.
While many transfers go where the most playing time exists, Burmeister instead chose to enter a quarterback mix with a healthy competition. The Hokies’ quarterback room was in flux when he initially began looking at the school, with Josh Jackson and Hendon Hooker entering the transfer portal. Hooker has since returned, rejoining a group that includes presumptive starter Ryan Willis, who had a decent season last fall after Jackson got hurt, and Quincy Patterson, a physically gifted redshirt freshman who many consider Tech’s quarterback of the future.
Burmeister is a different kind of quarterback than what Tech currently has on the roster. But he can move and deliver a football with some precision, releasing the ball at all sorts of angles. And he doesn’t shy away from competition.
“Coming from Oregon and being behind Herbert, I feel like I’ve kind of seen the best in the country and it’s kind of prepared me for competition,” he said. “I feel like competing is the only way to go if you want to get better and your teammates want to get better, the team wants to get better. You’ve got to compete to be the best you, so that was kind of my thought process with that whole thing. And Virginia Tech does have great quarterbacks on their roster, but I also believe that I’m a great quarterback and will be willing to compete with any and everyone.”
Advertisement
Burmeister is applying for a waiver to play immediately. Though he declined to elaborate on his reasoning, he and his family are encouraged about his chances after Miami’s Tate Martell — oddly enough another quarterback originally from San Diego and a friend of Braxton’s — received approval on his waiver from the NCAA this month.
If it does go through, Burmeister will be another option for the Hokies this fall. If not, he’ll sit out this season, then have two seasons of eligibility remaining starting in 2020.
In the meantime, he’s taking online courses at Oregon from San Diego and working out every day. He throws about four times a week, and as a UFC and MMA fan, he does kickboxing for cardio. (He says he’s a big Conor McGregor guy, though he likes him more for his in-ring ability than his antics outside of the octagon.) It’s all about putting himself in the best place to succeed once he gets to Tech.
“For me, it’s really whatever happens, happens,” Braxton said. “If I get my eligibility, that’d be awesome and kind of see what happens in fall camp and see how the season goes. And if I don’t get it, then I get to learn for a year and have two years after.
“So for me, Virginia Tech was a great situation because either way it’s going to be a great opportunity.”