THE DETAILS: ‘INCREDIBLE SEASON CONTINUES FOR BURR-KIRVEN’

By Mason Kelley // 12.27.16

By Washington Huskies

December 27^th, 2016

When Ben Burr-Kirven talked about his sophomore season during a recent interview, the linebacker kept coming back to one word: Incredible.

Winning 12 games: Incredible.

A Pac-12 championship: Incredible.

And getting to play a pivotal role in the Washington’s success: Incredible.

It’s a fitting description for a year that, for many outside of the program, has exceeded all expectations.

THE DETAILS: ‘INCREDIBLE SEASON CONTINUES FOR BURR-KIRVEN’

“Going into the year, I knew we were going to be pretty good, but the level of success we’ve had has been pretty incredible,” Burr-Kirven said. “I never could have expected this team to be this successful this quickly.”

But, while a trip to the College Football Playoff to play top-ranked Alabama wasn’t part of Burr-Kirven’s preseason prediction, it has been an exciting ride.

“This is what I wanted,” he said. “I just wanted to have an important role on the team.”

As the season has progressed, Burr-Kirven’s role has expanded. He has seen the field for the Huskies each week so far this season, piling up 39 tackles (seventh on the team).

“I’ve just got to do whatever is asked of me,” he said. “I’ve been on special teams all year last year and this year. That’s something I take a lot of pride in, but when my number is called on defense, it’s all about going in there and having no drop off.”

When Azeem Victor suffered a season-ending injury against USC earlier this year, Burr-Kirven knew he needed to help fill the void left by the program’s top tackler.

“With Azeem going down, there’s been a lot more responsibility for me, DJ (Beavers) and the younger guys, so it’s been pretty awesome to go out there and show our stuff and, hopefully, not have any drop off when you lose a guy like that,” he said.

With the help of his teammates, Washington’s linebackers have rallied together to ensure the defense continues to find success.

“We’re a really tight group,” Burr-Kirven said. “We lost Sean (Constantine) at the beginning of the year. And then losing Azeem, those were two of the older guys, two of the leaders. Whether you like it or not, you have to get really close to each other, because when you lose guys like that everyone starts to get really tight, really fast.”

When Burr-Kirven is on the field, he wants people to see No. 25 and think, “he’s pretty good.”

“It’s next man up for everybody,” he said. “You don’t want anyone to be like, ‘Oh, here comes that guy.’ You want it to be, ‘Oh, it’s that guy, here we go.’”

Based on his play so far, it would be the latter.

And, while his play does most of the talking, his hair also makes quite the statement with long blond locks flowing from his helmet. He had long hair when he was younger, but cut it in high school. He said college felt like a good opportunity to bring the look back.

“I started growing it right before camp last year,” Burr-Kirven said. “When I got up here, I figured I might as well grow it out. This is the time to do it. I can look like a cave man while I’m playing college football. I figured I’d grow it out one more time and see if I liked it. I’m pretty happy with that decision.”