GAINESVILLE, Fla.-- Amari Burney has quickly made himself indispensable to Florida .

“Burney’s really important to this team," cornerback Marco Wilson said on Thursday.

Thats putting it mildly.

During his freshman season, Burney played mostly on special teams and backed up Chauncey Gardner-Johnson at the Star position. However, he saw himself move to weakside linebacker (or the "Money" position) towards the end of the 2018 season and predominantly played that position in the spring.

Fast forward to the fall and Burney's role on the defense started to change. John Huggins' dismissal and a few injuries meant that Florida was now working with a depth issue in the secondary .

Burney's role was now expanding.

"He plays multiple positions:linebacker and Star," said Wilson. "He really covers that depth at star because we struggled there over the past couple of weeks. He’s very athletic and he can play real good."

"He’s a pretty good player," Gators defensive coordinator Todd Grantham told reporters. "He could pretty much start at [the Star] position or the money linebacker position. We’re going to make sure he can play both.”

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“Great weapon," said linebacker David Reese. "When you get a guy like that, that is versatile like that you can put him in many different situations. You can bring him on blitzes or put him in coverage and just shut somebody down for the whole game.”

Burney not only has the size but he is also one of the fastest members of the team.

"His speed, him and [Tyron]Hopper probably are the fastest linebackers we got. Them guys is flying," said Reese.

"He is a big athletic guy," said linebackers coach Christian Robinson. "Burney can run and that makes him valuable. He is extremely smart. I mean he has lined up all over for us. When you have a full range of understanding it creates value."

This fall camp has seen Burney alternate his time between the safeties meeting room and the linebackers meeting room.

"Just trying to learn both positions," explained Burney. “I mean, they’re both the same thing for me. Star and Money is basically the same position, it’s just you’ve just got to be a bigger guy and you’ve got to guard different people, but it’s mainly the same position.”

According to Burney, he has really enjoyed working closely with both linebackers coach Christian Robinson and safeties coach Ron English.

"In high school, I had no technique. It was different in high school, I just stood in the middle and just played the ball and made tackles, things like that," said Burney. "But coming here, Coach English and Coach Robinson, they both put me in the film room when I first got here, and showing me my footwork, things I needed to work on in the offseason.

“Teaching me different techniques and things like that," added Burney. "In the linebacker room I’m mainly working in the box, shuffling, things like that. In the safety room it’s backpedaling, getting out of breaks.

“They tell me when to go in, and you know I just got to reset my mindset whichever position I’m in, because you know I might be doing something different on this play than I am at Star. So I just got to reset it and just study the playbook hard and know what I’m doing.”

Burney has also leaned on Reese when it comes to learning the linebacker position.

“He’s like the professor in the film room," said Burney about Reese. "Everything he tells us, we know he’s right. We don’t second guess him or anything like that. Whatever he tells you, that’s what we’re playing.”

Although several of his teammates may describe him as "important" or "valuable," Burney understands nothing is given.

He earned his playing time after performing well on special teams, and even though his role is about to grow, the mindset that he needs to continue to work for his spot has not changed.

“I really wasn’t given anything growing up... I had to work my way up," said Burney. "Just last year being behind Chauncey and things like that, just learning from him, it really wasn’t checking my ego, it was just learning and making sure I’m ready if I got to go in.”

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