‘We’re coming for the top.’ Why UK was the right choice for Jager Burton.
Jager Burton, Kentucky’s newest commitment in the 2021 signing class, has a first name that you don’t hear a lot.
It’s pronounced “Jagger,” as in Mick Jagger, but his parents swear the name isn’t a tribute to the Rolling Stones frontman. They just wanted him and his older brother, Drayden, to stand out a little.
“Me and his mom have very common names, Teresa and Jeff, so we wanted our kids to have a little bit different names,” Jeff Burton said Sunday following Jager’s commitment to the Wildcats at KSBar and Grille. “… We read it somewhere right before he was born.”
It’s pronounced differently in German, but in that language Jager is a common surname that originates from the German word for “hunter.” That kind of etymological background suits the 6-foot-4, 271-pound offensive tackle, whose athleticism has him poised to deliver quickly at the next level once he packs on a little more weight.
Burton, who plays at Frederick Douglass High School in Lexington, chose Kentucky from a who’s who of potential destinations — Alabama, Ohio State, Clemson and Oregon were with the Cats in his final five — but the Wildcats had been in play for his commitment the longest. In fact, it was UK offensive line coach John Schlarman who encouraged him to move to the offensive side of the ball full-time.
“A camp my sophomore year, he got me to switch from D-line to O-line at the camp,” Jager said. “He said, ‘You’re an athletic D-lineman but you’d be an extremely athletic O-lineman.’ I was like, ‘I’ll give it a try, whatever it takes to get to go to Kentucky.’”
That flip resulted in him becoming a four-star recruit and a top-100 player who could attend any school he wanted. Several factors made Kentucky the winner — it being his hometown school, long-standing relationships with its staff, the program’s demonstrated ability to develop offensive linemen (as well as its building of the “Big Blue Wall” branding around that unit) — but recruiting coordinator and tight ends coach Vince Marrow was a difference-making figure throughout the process as Jager’s heart leaped from school to school in the blink of an eye.
“My recruitment was all turning points,” Jager said. “I would go somewhere and then I’d want to go somewhere else and I’d ghost somebody. Wherever the last place I went was where I wanted to go. Coach Marrow kind of helped me guide my way throughout the recruiting process without even recruiting me to Kentucky, just telling me about recruiting in general. Coach Marrow was a big player in my recruitment and deserves a lot of credit.”
Burton had visited the campuses of all the schools in his final five but was unable to take any of his official visits because of the COVID-19 pandemic. He for a while had wanted to make his decision prior to the start of his senior season; Douglass is scheduled to host North Hardin High School (itself home to several UK commits and targets) on Sept. 11.
It was disappointing not to be able to take those visits, but Burton believes he would still have arrived at the same conclusion he did earlier this month: Kentucky was the best fit.
As he notified the runner-up schools prior to making his decision public, a few coaches said they weren’t going to stop recruiting him. He was adamant with them that, barring “an unforeseen coaching change,” he won’t be moving off his commitment to the Wildcats.
One of his first calls after announcing was to his best friend Walker Parks, a former Douglass lineman who signed with Clemson in December. He told reporters that he wants to play his pal in a national championship game in the coming years.
“It shows that we’re coming,” Jager said when asked about picking UK from the group of schools he was considering at the end. “We’re coming for the top.”
A hunter, indeed.
This story was originally published August 30, 2020 at 8:40 PM.
