Shrine Camp: Day 1
Roger Brown
nhfootballreport.com
The Shrine Maple Sugar Bowl experience requires those associated with each team to learn a lot in a short amount of time. Perhaps no one has more to learn than each team's head coach.
That's why New Hampshire coach Greg Husband spent Wednesday -- the first day of practice -- studying his players. Husband and his staff even had a meeting late Wednesday night to assess what they had seen earlier in the day.
"We're still unsettled in a lot of areas," Husband said. "It's too early to say for sure who's going to play offense and who's going to play defense. We came here with a basic idea of what we wanted to do, but after watching the kids we're going to change a couple of things around."
New Hampshire held two practices at Kimball Union Academy on Wednesday. Husband said the afternoon practice was used to start installing the offense, and the evening practice focused more on defense. New Hampshire's four offensive formations for this year's game are an I-formation with a wingback, an I-formation with a slotback, Spread and Bunch.
"Offensively we had quite a few kids who looked good -- the George kid from Pinkerton (Chris George), Ray Boulay (from Keene) and (Austyn) Turner from Franklin," Husband said. "Colin Brown from Concord was very impressive at running back, wide receiver and defensive back. He's a very versatile player.
"I like our depth at linebacker, and I like the way the kids approach things. You generally don't have to say things twice."
New Hampshire will carry a 40-13-2 advantage into this year's game, which will be played Aug. 1 at Windsor (Vt.) High School.
New Hampshire will hold an intra-squad scrimmage Saturday at 10 a.m. The scrimmage is open to the public.
Husband said three practices are scheduled for Thursday.
"We're still trying to figure out who to use where," he said. "It would be nice if we could put 11 on (offense) and 11 on (defense) to keep everyone fresh, but if there's a player who should go both ways he probably will."
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Shrine fact: The 42 points New Hampshire scored in last year's 42-0 victory were the most scored by a New Hampshire team in the game's history. The 1966 New Hampshire team prevailed 42-12. Vermont holds the record for most points in a game (47). Vermont won the 2000 game 47-40. The 87 points is the most scored in one game.
