Joe Burkeland earns WIAC honors

Posted 10/16/07

UW-Platteville's Joe Burkeland, the first Pioneer quarterback to rush for more than 100 yards in a game since 1998, earned the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Offensive Player of the Week.

Burkeland, a freshman from Hollandale (Pecatonica High School), came off the bench to run for 151 yards and score three touchdowns while leading the Pioneers to a 37-34 victory over 18th-ranked UW-La Crosse. He scored on TD runs of 6, 7, and 3 yards in the first half. He directed the Pioneers on a 78-yard drive that covered 2:49 and ended with a 17-yard game-winning field goal with three seconds left. Burkeland ran for 57 of those 78 yards, including a big 20-yard scramble on a third-and-11 from the Pioneer 20. Burkeland finished with 151 rushing yards on 19 attempts and completed 4 of 12 passes for 3 yards. He also caught a 24-yard pass from halfback Mike Genslinger.

John Jacobs was the last previous QB to gain 100 yards, rushing for 114 yards against UW-Stout on Nov. 14, 1998.

With Burkeland, Genslinger (149 rushing yards) and Tyson Droessler (114 receiving yards), the Pioneers had two 100-yard rushers and a 100-yard receiver in the same game for the first time in school history.

The Pioneers' 553 total yards were the most since amassing 571 against UW-Oshkosh on Oct. 27, 2001, and the 18 rushing first downs were the most by the Pioneers in Coach Mike Emendorfer's nine years.