The same spring day in 2006 that coaching titan Pete Carroll of USC toted his young offensive coordinator, Lane Kiffin, to Moon Valley High in Phoenix, Tennessee’s Phil Fulmer and Georgia’s Mark Richt dropped by the campus. They came to steal a look at the kid who had played football for less than two years.

Jaivorio Burkes’ coach appreciated the attention, but he had other ideas.

Roger Britson worshiped Nebraska in the Tom Osborne era. Britson grew up in Radcliffe, Iowa, a farming town 60 miles north of Des Moines. And Dennis Wagner, the Huskers offensive line coach under Bill Callahan from 2004 to ’07, just happened to have attended high school with Britson’s older siblings.

“I wanted one of my kids to go to Nebraska,” Britson said, “especially a lineman.”

It happened, tipping a domino en route to one of the most unlikely recruiting hauls in Nebraska football history.

Young defensive assistant Bill Busch snagged five Arizona prospects in the Class of 2007. A mystifying talent and the central figure in Busch’s coup, Burkes connected everyone 15 years ago and continues to make an impact after his 2020 death.

In that summer before Burkes’ senior season, Britson packed his new four-door, lifted Ford F150 4×4 with football players from Arizona. Burkes, the 6-foot-4, 310-pound offensive tackle, rode shotgun with his coach. They drove straight through to Iowa, more than 1,500 miles, stopping in Amarillo, Texas, at a Gold’s Gym and briefly in Kansas City.

Burkes, Britson and the Arizona kids stayed for five weeks. They ate breakfast at 3:30 a.m. before detasseling corn in the July heat, then lifting weights on concrete in front of the machine shed at the home of Britson’s parents. After, they’d drive into Radcliffe to finish working out.

On the return trip to Phoenix, Britson took a northern route and stopped in Lincoln, Neb. They convened at Memorial Stadium with Busch, the Nebraska defensive assistant who scouted Burkes and had begun an intense pursuit of several prospects from the West Valley in Phoenix.

Callahan grew so enamored of Burkes on the unofficial recruiting visit that Nebraska extended his stay by one day so Burkes could see all the Huskers had to offer.

“They measured his hands,” Britson said, “and they said they’d never seen someone that big.”

By the time the Arizona contingent got back on the road, word of Burkes’ visit had spread. He got recognized at a gas station. Burkes was hard to miss. Nebraska coaches felt immediately that he possessed first-round NFL Draft talent.

“He wasn’t just ‘pretty athletic,’” Busch said. “The way Jaivorio moved up and down the basketball court, it was incredible. And then he had this enormous, room-changing personality.

“Everything got better when he walked in.”

Six months after that fateful stopover, five of the top 15 Arizona prospects in the Class of 2007 signed with Nebraska in a ceremony at Ironwood High in Glendale.

The random and often cruel twists of life have since sent them in every direction. Three played in the NFL. But not Burkes.

Todd Hanson grew up in Papillion, Neb. He coached basketball in Arizona at Ironwood for 24 years, including 10 seasons as the head coach until 2014. In 2005 and ’06 as his beloved Huskers won 17 football games over two seasons, capped by an Alamo Bowl win against Michigan and a Cotton Bowl loss against Auburn, Hanson saw a parade of Nebraska coaches visit his school.

There was defensive coordinator Kevin Cosgrove and wide receivers coach Ted Gilmore.

“And Bill Busch was there 29 times,” Hanson said, perhaps not exaggerating.

Busch coached safeties and special teams in Lincoln. It was his second stint on staff at Nebraska. He returned for a third last season from LSU as a defensive analyst, and Scott Frost promoted Busch in January to special teams coordinator, a development that pleased Hanson.

“He was relentless, man. He just never stopped,” Hanson said.

At Ironwood, Nebraska wanted Eric Hagg, a dynamic athlete who played receiver and defensive back, and defensive end Will Yancy, the brother of former standout Arizona State defender Quincy Yancy. The older Yancy redshirted on the 1996 Sun Devils team that beat Frost as a quarterback and Nebraska 19-0 to snap a 26-game winning streak.

When Arizona State and Arizona fans clamored for Hanson’s players to pick a college close to home, he held up five fingers, one for each of the national championship rings Nebraska had won in his lifetime.

But the coach tried not to exert too much influence. Primarily, he talked to the prospects about the friendly nature of Nebraskans.

“I just said it would be a great opportunity,” Hanson said.

Five miles south of Ironwood in Glendale at Apollo High, Busch pursued Prince Amukamara, a top running back and track star. Callahan, as Busch explained, took one look on tape and said of Amukamara, a prospect at cornerback whose parents emigrated from Nigeria, “That’s the kind of guy we’re looking for.”

Nebraska sought offensive lineman Marcel Jones from Trevor G. Browne High, 10 miles west of downtown Phoenix. And a quick drive north at Moon Valley, it was Burkes, the highest-rated of the Nebraska targets at No. 3 in the state of Arizona behind USC-bound linemen Everson Griffen and Kris O’Dowd.

Somehow, Busch got them all.

“Bill found a connection with every one of them,” said Britson, the Moon Valley coach.

Busch spent as much time as he could find at the schools and talked to everyone met.

“Likability is so important,” Busch said.

He tapped resources in native Midwesterners Britson and Hanson. And he created advantages. When Busch visited Yancy at his home, the recruit and his parents expected a big presentation similar to what other assistant coaches delivered.

“No books and pamphlets and hats — he had none of it,” Yancy said. “We wondered if he was going to show us anything. Finally, we asked. He told us to take the trip to Lincoln. He said it sells itself. He wasn’t lying.”

It helped that the players knew one another. Amukamara and Hagg struck a friendship years earlier at a Fellowship of Christian Athletes camp. Burkes met Amukamara, Yancy and Jones on the basketball court before they began high school.

They all talked — about schools, recruiting trips and life.

“The one that rallied them the most would have been Jaivorio,” Busch said.

Hagg and Amukamara decided as seniors in high school to visit several of the same college programs.

Amukamara was outgoing, like Burkes. Hagg was reserved. He wanted to follow Amukamara. But on a trip to Nebraska with Burkes and Amukamara for the Colorado game in November, Hagg got caught up in the moment. He committed while talking to Callahan in the coach’s office.

“Bill Busch kind of put that bug in his ear,” Amukamara said.

Hagg said he was “blown away” by Memorial Stadium during the Black Friday game, which Nebraska won 37-14 to clinch the Big 12 North title.

Upon Hagg’s return to Arizona, his father questioned him. Was he sure he didn’t want to take more of his planned trips? “I was locked in,” Hagg said.

On that trip to Lincoln with Hanson (who was also his basketball coach) and Amukamara, Hagg got to know Burkes better.

“When I say he was talented, I mean he could jump out of the gym,” Hagg said. “I’m talking windmill dunks. But most of all, he made everybody smile. His personality was infectious.”

Yancy and Jones visited two weeks after the other three. Later in December, Yancy committed, then Jones a day later. Burkes, after also visiting ASU, Oklahoma and Michigan, pledged to Nebraska the day after Christmas. Amukamara made it 5-for-5 on Dec. 30.

Busch’s devotion helped win them over. He said he never treated any of the Arizona players as a package deal. Before Hagg’s visit as the Nebraska class grew, coaches in Lincoln discussed discontinuing their recruitment of him. Busch got animated in the staff meeting.

“I was on the table,” Busch said. “‘Do not drop Eric Hagg.’ I was losing my mind. I knew how special he could be.”

For Burkes, Busch estimated he traded 400 calls with a guidance counselor at Moon Valley in 2006 and ’07. Burkes tested well, but poor grades threatened his ability to qualify academically as medical issues occupied some of his free time.

From a young age, Burkes suffered from a kidney disorder. His body produced too much protein. He and his mother, a single parent of two boys and an inspiring woman, according to Busch, managed it with medication.

Burkes’ friends hardly knew of the problem. If they had a bad day, former Nebraska teammates said, Burkes made it a point to cheer them up.

Michigan backed off amid the academic concerns. But Busch’s commitment to Burkes and the others did not waver. They strategized extensively. Burkes retook a few classes. It worked.

“My thought was, ‘Does this guy ever sleep?’” Hanson said. “He was always talking to me. He was always talking to the kids. He was always on our campus. And that was just for two (recruits). He had 30 others he was working on that year. Holy moly.”

Jones, the other offensive lineman in the group from Phoenix, picked Nebraska over Arizona State because he believed in the Huskers’ stability. ASU fired coach Dirk Koetter and hired Dennis Erickson right as Jones readied for his official visit to Nebraska.

“I sat with Coach Callahan,” Jones said, “and he said he wasn’t going anywhere.”

But early in that first season for the Arizona signees, Callahan’s progress stalled. No. 1-ranked USC beat Nebraska, and the Huskers nearly stumbled a week later with Ball State in town before losing big in October against Missouri and Oklahoma State.

Out went polarizing athletic director Steve Pederson. Osborne replaced him, an attempt by the school to bring calm. Callahan was fired after a 5-7 finish, his second losing season in four years. Incoming coach Bo Pelini did not retain Busch, Wagner and five other assistants.

The changes hit Burkes hard. After starting three games at left tackle late in 2007, he began to feel homesick, Britson said. That in itself was nothing unusual. While the players from Arizona reveled that year in experiencing snowfall together for the first time in Lincoln, Hagg said he and Amukamara also wondered whether they’d made the wrong decision to sign with Nebraska.

Soon, Pelini eased those concerns. His defensive system catered to their skill sets.

Amukamara exploded into a star at cornerback. A consensus All-American in 2010 and the Big 12 defensive player of the year, he landed with the New York Giants as the 19th pick of the 2011 draft — still Nebraska’s most recent first-round pick.

Hagg started for three seasons. He filled a key role as the playmaking nickel defensive back for stout Nebraska defenses in 2009 and 2010 that carried the Huskers to Big 12 championship game appearances. The Cleveland Browns drafted Hagg in the seventh round in 2011.

Shoulder injuries cut short Yancy’s career at Nebraska.

Jones started in Lincoln for two seasons at right tackle and was a seventh-round pick for New Orleans in 2012.

For Burkes, dark days ensued. He babysat Wagner’s kids during their lone season together at Nebraska in 2007 and did not feel the same connection with the Huskers’ new offensive staff.

“You would never have known,” said Amukamara, who lived with Burkes during their first two years in Lincoln. “The guy always had a smile on his face. He was just so likable and could relate to different people in different circles. And on the field, he was a man among boys.”

Early in Burkes’ career, Nebraska coaches revised their beliefs about his projectability. He was better than a typical first-rounder.

“We thought he was a top-five pick,” Busch said.

Burkes missed a portion of preseason camp in 2008 because of kidney problems that resurfaced. He played in every game and started four that fall. The medical issues ultimately ended his playing career. Pelini announced with little fanfare at Big 12 media days in July 2009 that Burkes was no longer with the team. He never returned.

Back in Arizona, he underwent a kidney transplant and required dialysis to remove excess water and salt from his body.

Before Burkes’ 30th birthday in 2018, scars lined his body from surgery. He finished school at ASU. For work, he organized YMCA basketball leagues and kids activities. No longer did he physically resemble the kid whose sheer mass enticed Arizona Cardinals left tackle Leonard Davis to donate six pairs of red, size-17, extra-wide cleats to the Moon Valley equipment collection.

But the joyous spirit remained.

“His laugh,” Yancy said, “it was addicting.”

Sherry Webb, Burkes’ mother, died in March 2020 at age 59. She dealt with chronic health issues, too, while constantly setting a positive example for Burkes.

“You could see where his passion came from,” Yancy said. “She commanded a room, but she always knew how to treat everybody equally and love everybody equally.”

Two months after his mother’s death, Burkes died of a brain aneurysm while at home in Arizona. He was 31.

An outpouring of communication from former college teammates followed. From Burkes’ era at Nebraska, a sizable group of former players formed a group chat over text, inspired to reconnect by his loss.

Just as in Burkes’ life of giving goodness to others, Jones said, his death “brought a lot of us together.”

They discuss everything from football to coaching, relationships, children and careers. Sometimes they just talk about Burkes and what he could have made of his career.

“He had all the measurables and definitely should have made it (in the NFL),” Amukamara said.

Britson said the Nebraska coaches described him as a “Sunday starter.” Before Burkes’ first career start on the road against Texas, Osborne called him in to talk. The interim AD invoked the name of Will Shields, a true freshman starter at Nebraska in 1989 who won the Outland Trophy as a senior and two decades later was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Amukamara, after 11 years in the NFL with six teams, remains in playing shape as a free agent and hopes to compete for another season. He married in 2014 and has two children, and he’s preparing for a post-football career in real estate and business ownership in Arizona.

Jones spent four years with two NFL organizations. He lives in Colorado and works in construction management.

Yancy works in the insurance business and married Randi Paul, the cousin of fellow 2007 signee Niles Paul. They’re raising two boys in Omaha with a third on the way.

Hagg spent two seasons in Cleveland, struggling with injuries and the NFL transition. He fought mental health issues and alcoholism.

“It was a long time of trying to figure my life out,” Hagg said.

He said he’s been in recovery for seven years and sober for 14 months. Hagg helped create the Barbell Saves Project, opening a gym in Glendale, where recovering addicts learn to focus on nutrition, weight training and mental health.

“My story is not like Prince’s,” said Hagg, who’s engaged with three children. “I’m just trying to pick up this second part of life.”

No two stories in this group are alike.

They elicit a full range of emotions, with a common thread in the zest for life exemplified by Burkes.

“It was a fun world to live in,” Busch said. “And the reason it worked out the way it has is because of Nebraska, the people, the program, the stadium on game day. All of it brought us together.”

(Top photo of Jaivorio Burkes courtesy of Nebraska)