Larry Vaught Photo
New Kentucky tight ends coach Justin Burke is a familiar name in central Kentucky because 20 years ago he was an elite quarterback at Lexington Catholic playing for coach Bob Sphire.
Burke was named Gatorade Player of the Year in Kentucky in 2005 and was a finalist for the Gatorade national Player of the Year after throwing for a state record 62 touchdowns and 3,789 yards and running for 471 yards and seven touchdowns when Catholic finished 14-1 and lost in the Class 3A state title game. He went 34-5 in three years as a starter at Catholic and completed 538 of 879 passes for 8,770 yards and 120 touchdowns with only 17 interceptions.
He signed with North Carolina State but transferred to Louisville for his final two seasons and finished his career completing 126 of 229 passes for 1,459 yards and 13 touchdowns with nine interceptions. Kentucky coach Will Stein was a backup quarterback in Burke’s two years at Louisville.
“There’s a different type of pride when you’re in your hometown, coaching at a premier, premier university in the entire country,” Burke said during his first session with media members Tuesday.
Burke has been so busy working on Stein’s staff that he has been living with his parents — his dad, Greg, was at practice Tuesday.
“I’ve got two roommates (his parents) right now and they ask me where I am after curfew. I’m living at my parents’ house right now until my family gets here. So, it feels a lot like back when I was here 20 years ago at Lexington Catholic,” Burke said.
The Kentucky tight ends coach spent the previous six seasons at Texas-San Antonio — where Stein also coached from 2020-2022. Burke went from offensive analyst to offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach during his six years before coming home to Lexington where he attended UK games at then Commonwealth Stadium.
“That’s what I love about coming back here,” Burke said. “I sat in those stands, watching these teams play. It’s special to be back in the Commonwealth, around my friends and family. I’m excited to get my family here and just be around the guys on this team.
“It does hit you differently when you come back to a place that, as a child, as a teen and as a high school player, that you grew up with and watched. You watched the Tim Couchs, the Derek Abneys, the guys who have been around the program. When they talk to the team, I remember watching those guys.”
One Response
It's very important to have these kind of connections here. Stein and Burke will control the state in recruiting. When Stein put the coaches together he went after one thing and that's recruiting and in college recruiting is 80% of it. Guys know how to play football they've done it since they were kids so it's not as much more of teaching is it is having the right players to be able to run the schemes. We have more talent here in 2026 on paper than we've ever had here. I think when it's all said and done we might have the most all confrence players on our team. I know we will have at least 2-3 preseason offensive lineman who will be all SEC. Willie Rodriguez could sneak in there. I also really like our backfield. Baxter and Barnes is the best one two punch we've had since Rodriguez and Snell. I think Baxter and Barnes will have better professional careers then Snell and Rodriguez. They are more talented. With the offensive line we have Minchey will get all day to find a open receiver. He's very accurate so Gilmore, Miller, Carr, Anderson, Rodriguez, Boyer, and Coffman are going to go off. Barnes and Baxter could both easily run for 1,000 yards. We just have a nasty offense. The crazy thing is our defense is even better than our offense. We have Gadson, Williams, Humphrey Grace, Breaux, and Harkless on the line. The deepest most talented defensive line we've ever had. Linebackers Wallace, Barnes, Godfrey, Cowan, Works ( I think Works could be the next Josh Allen here) he's due for a breakout season. We also have Sam Green but I think he won't be back until summer practice. Our secondary will be one of the best in the conference. Bryant and Castell is the best one two punch at safety in college football. Both have started for 3 years and they will be in there fourth year starting in the SEC. That's unheard of. Nichols and Sykes are ball hawks. We have a young but experienced secondary. Everyone cut there teeth last year and will be ready to make a impact this year. Let's Goooooooo!! I'm more excited about football then basketball now.