Nigel Burton (born July 30, 1976) is an

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

commentator for the Pac-12 television network and the former

head coach A head coach, senior coach or manager is a professional at training and developing athletes. They typically hold a more public profile and are paid more than other coaches. In some sports, the head coach is instead called the "manager", as in assoc ...

for the

Portland State Vikings Portland State Vikings is the nickname of the NCAA-affiliated, intercollegiate athletic teams representing Portland State University of Portland, Oregon. The Vikings compete at the NCAA Division I level in basketball, soccer, volleyball, golf, ...

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

team.

Playing career

Burton grew up in Sacramento where he attended Jesuit High School. He attended the University of the Pacific in 1995, but when the school eliminated its football program the following year, he transferred to the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattle a ...

, where he graduated in 1999 with a bachelor's degree. He played

safety Safety is the state of being "safe", the condition of being protected from harm or other danger. Safety can also refer to risk management, the control of recognized hazards in order to achieve an acceptable level of risk. Meanings There are ...

for both schools' football teams. He earned all-academic honors from the

Pacific-10 Conference The Pac-12 Conference is a collegiate athletic conference, that operates in the Western United States, participating in 24 sports at the NCAA Division I level. Its football teams compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS; formerly Division ...

three times at Washington and later earned a masters in business administration at the

University of South Florida The University of South Florida (USF) is a public research university with its main campus located in Tampa, Florida, and other campuses in St. Petersburg and Sarasota. It is one of 12 members of the State University System of Florida. USF is ...

Coaching career

Burton's first coaching job was as a defensive assistant for

South Florida South Florida is the southernmost region of the U.S. state of Florida. It is one of Florida's three most commonly referred to directional regions; the other two are Central Florida and North Florida. South Florida is the southernmost part of th ...

in 2000. From 2001 to 2002, he coached defensive backs at Portland State, and then from 2003 to 2007, coached the secondary at

Oregon State Oregon State University (OSU) is a public land-grant, research university in Corvallis, Oregon. OSU offers more than 200 undergraduate-degree programs along with a variety of graduate and doctoral degrees. It has the 10th largest engineering col ...

. In 2008, Burton was named defensive coordinator at

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. N ...

. In 2009, Burton was selected to replace

Jerry Glanville Jerry Michael Glanville (born October 14, 1941) is an American football coach who is the head coach of the Alabama Airborne of Major League Football. He played football at Northern Michigan University in the early 1960s, and is a former NASCAR d ...

as the head coach at Portland State. He became the second African American head football coach in school history after

Ron Stratten Ron Stratten (born 1943) is a former American football coach. He served as the head football coach at Portland State University team from 1972 to 1974. He compiled an overall record of 9–24 in three seasons. Stratten was one of the first Africa ...

, who coached in the early 1970s. Burton was fired after the 2014 season and compiled an overall record of 21–36 during his tenure at Portland State. In 2015, Burton joined Pac-12 Networks as an analyst.For Nigel Burton, TV work is an ideal way to be in the game while remaining in his beloved Portland

Personal

Burton is married and has two children.

Head coaching record

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Burton, Nigel 1976 births Living people American football safeties Oregon State Beavers football coaches Pacific Tigers football players Portland State Vikings football coaches South Florida Bulls football coaches Washington Huskies football players Players of American football from Sacramento, California African-American coaches of American football African-American players of American football 21st-century African-American sportspeople 20th-century African-American sportspeople