Nigel Burton started his college football career at Pacific University in Stockton California. When the Tigers folded their football program Burton transfered to Washington to complete his playing career. The Husky coaches were acquainted with Burton because they had played against him the previous year. Burton became a mainstay in the Husky secondary during his time at Washington.
Burton started off as a GA at Southern Florida in 1999 where he earned his Masters Degree. He got his first full time coaching job at Portland State in 2001 and stayed with the Vikings for two years before joining Mike Riley and his staff at Oregon State. Burton was a cornerback coach at OSU from 2003 to 2007.
Burton spent five seasons as cornerbacks coach, helping the Beavers to four bowl victories. He was a part of a staff that has enabled Oregon State to finish ranked in the top two of the Pac-10 Conference for defense in three of the last five seasons.
Paul Buker of the Oregonian had these comments about Burton.
A lot of us in the media thought Burton was not just coordinator material, but head coach material. There was simply no place for him to go at OSU, with Mark Banker firmly established as the Beavers' top defensive coach. At any rate, Burton's ability to recruit, and his gift for relating to his athletes, will be missed IMO.
In 2008 he joined the staff at Nevada as a defensive coordinator. The Wolf Pack finished 7-5 this season and earned a trip to the Humanitarian Bowl in Boise where they will face Maryland.
Burton's name came up in Sarkisian's first interview after being hired on Dec. 6, but only because Sarkisian said he remembered coaching against Burton when Burton was at Oregon State and Sarkisian was at USC.
UW has tried to hire Burton a couple of times over the past couple of years. His loyalty to Mike Riley kept him at OSU. Now that he is DC at Nevada there probably isn't anything that will prevent him from taking the UW job if offered after the Humanitarian Bowl.