Burrell, eliminated in the Olympic Trials 100m heats, took second to Coleman in the NCAA 100m final last month.
Profiled by The New York Times in 2013, he is the son of former 100m world-record holder Leroy Burrell and Michelle Finn-Burrell, a 1992 Olympic 4x100m gold medalist.
He ran four years at the University of Houston, where his dad is the head coach and Carl Lewis, the most decorated Olympic sprinter of all time, is an assistant.
Burrell slots right behind Coleman on the U.S. 100m rankings this year, running 9.93, also in the NCAA 100m heats at Hayward. It’s Burrell’s only race going sub-10.1 with legal wind.
Only Coleman and Olympic 100m finalist Akani Simbine of South Africa have run faster than Burrell this year (and Simbine did so by .01 with the benefit of altitude).
When Boldon looks at Burrell, he remembers the baby boy he saw 22 years ago. He also sees another potential Marvin Bracy, who busted form charts to take third in the Olympic Trials over veterans Mike Rodgers and Tyson Gay.
“If Cameron Burrell runs a low 9.9, he can keep somebody established off the team,” Boldon said. “I want to see if that 9.93 was a one-off kind of performance, or if he is finally living up to that sort of potential.”