Vermont has QB options
Roger Brown
nhfootballreport.com
The tone in Charlie Burnett's voice made this much clear: He was tired of answering questions about Max Librizzi.
Librizzi, who threw 45 touchdown passes in his senior year at Essex High School, will continue his football career at Holy Cross and will not play QB for Vermont in this summer's Shrine Maple Sugar Bowl.
Librizzi's final high school game was one of his best. He completed 29 of 46 passes for 446 yards and six touchdowns (three interceptions) to lead the North to a 61-39 victory in Vermont's North-South All-Star Game last November.
"We'd love to have him, but we're real excited about the kids we have," Burnett said earlier this week.
The quarterbacks on the Vermont roster include Mount Anthony's Keegan Corbett and Spaulding's Zach Dessereau. Corbett completed 21 of 31 passes for 358 yards and four touchdowns in the North-South game.
"He's got a cannon of an arm," Burnett said. "He ran a no-huddle, spread offense similar to the one we use."
Dessereau guided Spaulding to the Division II championship in his sophomore and junior seasons. He'll play for Wesleyan next season."
Burnett led Essex to an 11-0 record and the Division I championship last season, his second as the program's head coach. Essex used a four-wide set and scored 500 points in 11 games.
"We are an offensive-oriented team," Burnett said. "We'll use a four-receiver set almost every down.
"There are lots of kids at home who would be Shrine material if we used more of a running offense, but we have no fullback and no tight end. Unfortunately, many of the selections are based on what the coach does."
Vermont hasn't won the Shrine Maple Sugar Bowl since 2000, when it posted a 47-40 victory. Vermont has failed to score more than seven points in four of the last five games.
This year's contest will be played Aug. 7 (2:30 p.m.) at Windsor (Vt.) High School.
"We'll have a real solid attack coming at us," Burnett said. "New Hampshire has a lot of schools and a lot of good football players."
