Here’s what I know, Burkhart has seen Richlands talent going down and has tried coming out to west Texas for a while putting his name in the hat for the Garden City Job a time or two when they had opening and a few other schools around the area. He accepted a job at a 6man school last spring and seeing the talent level he dropped them last second without a coach and moved up to Stanton 3A-D2 to try his hand at a bigger school while also getting into west Texas where some of these schools have oil money and pay higher salaries. He came in with the “All In” motto guns a blazing and after starting off 1-6 the athletes had noticed his frustration and starting to unplug and just go through the motions. His son got into an altercation where a boy wanted to fight him so they kicked the kid out of school and Stanton dealt with it how they needed to, the son ran into the same kid outside of school where the kid and his son exchanged words and Burkharts son had a reason to be worried I think with the mix to get out of town they used the excuse that he was being bullied in school although the other student was no longer in the same school, used the excuse to get him to a better school where maybe Burkhart had a chance to coach at. Which makes sense because there is Grady as well as Garden City that are closer to Stanton. Football players have even stated that one time Burkharts wife after a game followed Burkhart into the locker room frustrated with him and the situation of living in Stanton and it not going as planned. So that’s when Burkhart started shopping around for openings, and Rankin with an assistant job opening during the middle of the semester and Stanton frustrated with Burkharts lack of enthusiasm and drive to work with the kids and trying to leave or not go to sporting events at all as the AD so he could go move and watch his son play in Sterling willingly let him out of his contract. Also like I was saying Rankin has a job opening as an assistant, they have new home grown coach that is great guy and coach they’ll keep around, Rankin pays really well, and they have school housing where Burkhart won’t have to go through the worry of buying a house and a good football program where the son can play. I still hear that like Stanton, Rankin will also just be a stepping stone for a year until HC jobs open up next year and he goes looking again. The worry is is that over the last few years Burkhart has toyed with Richland coaches have said that he threatened to leave then said he was staying year after year to get a raise or get attention and left for another 6 man job, didn’t turn out as he had thought then pursued the money that Stanton had to offer, then that went down hill and is going somewhere else which has had schools talking and second guessing whether they even wanted to pursue “legendary coach” Burkhart as he has seemed to be wanted back in Richland by staff and has left as soon as a job starts getting tough or hard or doesn’t live up to his expectations; thing is is there won’t be another school that has an opening that can go on the run like he did at Richland over the last decade and schools have mentioned he’ll just use them as a stepping stone or just stir up unwanted drama at their school for a year then dip out once it doesn’t play out as he wanted.
(All these are facts from local 6 man and 11 man schools alike as well as coaches and staff)