Burnett, McCullough bring big impact to respective defenses

There’s a phrase used regularly in football about a team’s players looking “good getting off the bus.”

And that means most everybody looks like a star: big, strong, strapping, muscular and the poster child size and body type for their position.

Undersized linebackers, like Mack McCullough and Kam Burnett, don’t necessarily inspire such awe to outsiders.

Of course, anybody can get off a bus. Not just anybody can play like McCullough and Burnett.

Their on-paper measurements bear no resemblance to their impact Friday night, as offenses will see this week when Northside and Burnett visit Houston County and McCullough at Freedom Field.

Eyes might gravitate toward quarterbacks Jake Fromm and Tobias Oliver, but McCullough and Burnett will no doubt draw attention with their playmaking skills.

Both are listed at 5-foot-10, the key word being “listed,” with the 210-pound Burnett having about 25 pounds on McCullough.

They anchor their respective defenses, bringing an ability to play any linebacker position, as well as drop into pass coverage.

That will be Burnett’s task this week when the Eagles face Fromm, the second quarterback in state history to pass 10,000 yards — and 11,000 and 12,000 yards — in total passing.

“This game, I’m like a safety (in) this game,” Burnett said. “They don’t really run the ball, (so) I’m gonna try to help out with the pass.”

Northside didn’t have abundant success with that in last year’s 34-13 loss in the regular-season finale. Fromm passed for more than 375 yards in that game and wasn’t picked off.

McCullough plays outside and inside linebacker and can drop back a little bit in Houston County’s defense, which has become one that utilizes its players athletic ability and is flexible on who plays where.

That’s how McCullough got into the lineup.

He was playing some defensive end, all scout team, as a sophomore, and defensive coordinator Ryan Crawford put him at linebacker right about the time starting linebacker Zach Taisler went down with an injury.

Suddenly, the unused defensive end was basically a starting linebacker.

“I was really surprised,” said the son of a pastor and Realtor. “I didn’t think I’d have the chance to even play at all.

“It was just a game we needed to win. They threw me in there.”

And he landed on his feet.

“Zach got hurt, and we had a couple guys I didn't want to move from another position,” Crawford said. “That particular week, we were bringing a lot of pressure, and we needed a little more speed. We just grabbed him, kind of out of necessity, and it ended up working out really good, and he played well that Jones County game.

“He’s been there ever since.”

McCullough, who missed the loss to Lee County with an eye injury, leads the Bears with 55 tackles and has a sack and tackle for loss. He was fourth last year with 43 tackles on a veteran defense that graduated the three players in front of him.

Now, he’s the old man on a young defense. And like the old man in any group, he has a regret or two.

“I've always worked my butt off,” he said. “But like almost every athlete out there, I cut reps. Yeah.

“I just think back on those times and think, ‘Man, I really wish I wouldn't have done that. I could have gotten off the block faster, I could have been just a little bit faster on that tackle.’ ”

Crawford has no complaints.

“He understands how to practice, had a sense of urgency at a young age,” Crawford said. “A lot of kids at that age don't, but he knew the sense of urgency at practice, and he just continued to get better.

“If we had a bunch of him, it'd be a lot better off. Not just football.”

Burnett was an antsy freshman ready to play for a program that only very rarely played freshmen.

“I thought I should (play),” Burnett said. “I'd really get mad at the game. ‘I need to be in the game, I know they could use me somewhere.'”

A year later, defensive coordinator Chris Reeves was tweaking the defensive scheme and was trying to find the right pieces.

And it was becoming a bit of a struggle.

“I had two kids on the outside, Tyree Williams and Josh Vickers, who split time at outside linebacker the year before,” Reeves said. “I was kind of looking for somebody in the middle.”

He tried a few returnees, but things didn’t click. Burnett’s name was called.

“As we went through the spring, the summer and the scrimmage game, that seemed to be the best combination. The combination that clicked the best was with Kam in the middle.”

That’s where he was for the near-dream season, a state championship year marred only by a stunning 45-37 loss at Jones County. He was all tears and sobbing on the Georgia Dome field after the Eagles topped Mays 25-18 for the Class 5A title on Dec. 12, 2014.

He tends to be pretty excited or emotional after big wins, like this year’s revenge victory over Ware County, the team that ended Northside’s 2015 year in the first round of the playoffs.

Burnett is a physical player who also makes the defensive calls.

“I gotta know where everybody is, what everybody's doing, and stuff, the offense, what formation they're in, get the defense lined up,” said Burnett, whose 10-year-old brother Jermarquis has the height and currently leans toward basketball. “I take pride in that. Me calling the perfect defense and somebody else making the play, I’m that type of player.”

He leads the Eagles with 57.5 tackles, just ahead of defensive back Isaiah Nelson and 13 ahead of Tae Daley, another rare three-year starter at Northside. Burnett has 16 tackles for loss and five pass breakups to also lead the defense.

So for all the attention set for the quarterbacks and some quality receivers on both sides, No. 22 for the home team and No. 32 for the visiting team will make their presence known, as usual, as the countdown to the end of their senior season nears an end.

And McCullough seems to speak for Burnett in somewhat dismissing talk of final games and playoffs and all that. This has grown into a quality rivalry, and focus isn’t a problem on either practice field.

“I'm not worried about that,” McCullough said. “I'm worried about beating Northside. That's all I'm worried about.”

This story was originally published October 26, 2016 at 9:08 PM with the headline "Burnett, McCullough bring big impact to respective defenses."