Catching up with Nigel Burton

One of the defining plays of Nigel Burton's career has also been called the moment Beaver Nation understood that things were changing for good.

Oregon State, which hadn't had a winning season in 27 years and had trailed 28-7 earlier in the half, scored with no time remaining to cut Washington's lead to 35-34 on a rainy October afternoon in 1998 at Husky Stadium.

But instead of settling for the tie and overtime, Oregon State coach Mike Riley went for the win.

"To me, that was the defining moment of this program," Bob De Carolis, Oregon State's athletic director, is quoted as saying in the football media guide.

The play failed, however, when Burton, a UW defensive back, knocked a Jonathan Smith pass away from Oregon State receiver Roddy Tompkins in the end zone.

And if De Carolis really wants to know what happened on that play, all he has to do is walk into the Oregon State football offices, where he can find both Smith — now a graduate assistant — and Burton, now the Beavers' secondary coach.

Burton was a rover/safety at UW from 1996 until '98, starting 35 of 36 games after transferring from Pacific when that school dropped its football program.

Burton spent the past two seasons at Portland State before being hired in June by Riley, who returned to the school in February.

And while Riley and Burton have seen each other virtually every day since then, they have yet to talk about that play in 1998.

"You know, he's never even mentioned it to me," Burton said this week with a laugh. "Maybe he's blocked it from his memory. I've heard him talk about it to other people, but he's never said anything to me. It's more of a joke with me and Jonathan Smith. I always tell him that we'd already let him (throw) for 469 yards, so I figured he owed me the win."

That play was all that stood between Washington and its first losing season since 1976. UW finished the regular season 6-5.

The reward was a trip to Hawaii for the Oahu Bowl, which turned into a life-altering week for Burton. Also on the islands that year were the Oregon Ducks, there to play Colorado in the Aloha Bowl, and an Oregon cheerleader named Heather Brewer. The two are now married.

"There's no love lost between me and Oregon," Burton said. "I figured the best way to make Duck fans mad is to marry their most beautiful woman."

Burton graduated from UW with a business-administration degree in 1999 figuring on an accounting career. But Huskies coaches such as Dick Baird and Scott Pelluer had always told Burton — often referred to as a coach on the field while a player — that he should pursue coaching.

He resisted at first, working as an intern for the NCAA for six months, then taking a job as an academic counselor at Florida. There, Florida assistant coach Buddy Teevens — now head coach at Stanford — convinced Burton to coach. He took a job three months later as an assistant at South Florida, then landed at Portland State in 2001.

"I just kind of fell in love with it," he said. "It was either that or be an accountant again, and I sure don't want to do that. I always figured if I didn't coach I would teach, so that's how I approach coaching. It's teaching, but instead of math or science, it's football and life."

Tomorrow, he will face his alma mater for the first time.

"Obviously I've got a lot of love for the place," Burton said of UW. "But this is my job now. All allegiance aside, I'm wearing orange and black now."