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Warner football uses 98-0 loss to Division I program as stepping stool

robert magobet, the ledger
·4 min read
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Dialleo Burks, pictured here in the middle, coaches up his team. Burks, a former NFL player, is in his first year with Warner as the head coach.
Dialleo Burks, pictured here in the middle, coaches up his team. Burks, a former NFL player, is in his first year with Warner as the head coach.

Dialleo Burks already knew Warner was a considerably new NAIA college football program before he took the head coaching  job in the winter of 2021.

The program had been established in 2014. And because of this, Burks, who played wide receiver for the Philadelphia Eagles, Carolina Panthers and Oakland Raiders before becoming a successful head coach in high school, was willing to play the long game and build Warner from the ground up.

Burks knew it would be a growing process — and likely with growing pains. The entire season has been a microcosm of that, but last Saturday accentuated the process after the first-year head coach scheduled a game against Division I Stephen F. Austin State University.

The Royals lost 98-0 to the Lumberjacks, which is the largest deficit in the Western Athletic Conference in its history according to ESPN. Lumberjacks quarterback Trae Self connected on four touchdown passes and four Lumberjack quarterbacks combined for eight TD passes on Saturday in Nacogdoches, Texas.

Dialleo Burks knew what he was doing when he scheduled Warner against Stephen F. Austin.
Dialleo Burks knew what he was doing when he scheduled Warner against Stephen F. Austin.

Warner quarterback Cohen Begue threw for 114 yards against Division I competition. But to Burks, it was never about stats. It’s about the long game, which extends well beyond the football field.

“For me, taking over the organization, every coach wants to win … but you look at the impact a coach is supposed to make or any coach makes on a young man’s life, that’s impactful,” Burks said. “And so I know what we’re here for: I’m here to coach football. I’m also here to change these guy’s lives as well. (I want) to prepare these guys to go out in the world and be productive men on their jobs and with their families. And so we’re building that.”

Burks said he emphasizes to his players that it is imperative for everyone to believe in the new culture and each other, as well as the coaching staff.

For Burks, another part of that process is to give his players the best college experience possible, which to Burks means putting the best players on the field to augment football skills. With only 10 games, Burks needed to fill out the schedule, so he added Stephen F. Austin, which also provided a undisclosed financial benefit to the university.

Additionally, 38 student-athletes were recruited by Division I programs in large part because Burks scheduled this Division I game.

“We want to expose these guys to the high level of football — not saying we’re going to take on Florida,” Burks said. “…But the opportunity came late. And felt something at the time that we had to jump on for a number of reasons, so that’s why we made a decision to play.

"Do I regret playing? Not at all, because if you look at the maturity of the process, we are growing in adverse situations.”

With a roster comprised of a majority of freshman and sophomores — players who haven’t played college football before — Warner has competed against some challenging teams. Warner lost to Division II West Florida (2019 national champions), Florida Memorial and Keiser University, which was ranked No. 7 when the Royals played them and has been a good program since its inception five years ago.

While Warner hasn’t won any of these games, Burks said he saw some bright spots to eventually get to the program achieving a winning season for the first time since 2016.

“I will give it to our staff that shows up every day — long hours, missing family functions and all that to pour into these young men who are preparing wholeheartedly for success,” Burks said. “Next, you see the guys that dress, and the guys that travel that occupy the uniform. They are here every day, regardless of what went on, ‘Coach I’m here today.’ So that tells us that they want to be coached. They want to get it together. … We haven’t had one guy that quits. That lets you know we are going in the right direction.”

Depending on the path of Hurricane Ian, Warner is scheduled to play 7 p.m. Saturday vs. conference rival Webber International (2-1) in Lake Wales.

This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Warner football uses 98-0 loss to D-I Stephen F. Austin as positive