For News...Venice QB Burton

[IHateUGAlyDawgs]

Trey Burton has been showing off his right arm allsummer long. At camps and in 7-on-7 tournaments, the 16-year-old VeniceHigh School quarterback has played well beyond his years and he didn’tdisappoint for those in attendance at Friday Night Lights in Ben HillGriffin Stadium.

“This is what I have hoped for mywhole life,” Burton said. “I’m going up against the best and to do itin The Swamp with everyone watching, I can’t wait.”

Burton has been offered by South Florida, West Virginia and FloridaAtlantic. He said he grew up a Gators fan but won’t let that affect hisdecision.

“I love Gainesville,” he said. “You can tell walking around howmuch they love their team up there, it’s a special place. But now thatI have a chance to play for all these schools that I never really knewabout, I’ve started looking at them and researching them. So right nowI like everybody.”

Already this summer, Burton has established himself as one of thebest quarterbacks for the Class of 2010. First he impressed the Floridacoaching staff in April at the Nike camp in Gainesville. He followedthat up with another strong performance at USF last weekend in their7-on-7 tournament “Sling and Shoot.”

“We played really well and beat some good teams there,” Burtonsaid. “We ended up losing to Plant (Tampa) in the semis by three. Hadwe made our conversions we would have beat them.”

Burton went head-to-head and held his own against Plant’s AaronMurray, who has committed to Georgia and is one of the bestquarterbacks in the 2009 class, an impressive feat from a player whodescribes himself as a running back playing quarterback.

On Friday, Burton showed off his footwork and arm strength inindividual drills and proved to be one of the best at the camp throwingon the run. Burton even caught the attention of the Florida coaches, ashe had coaches Dan Mullen and Urban Meyer coaching him up during theone-on-one passing drills.

“I love the coaching staff at Florida, they are veryknowledgeable,” Burton said. “I learned a lot from coach Mullen, hereally knows a lot of football.”

With 4.5 speed in the 40-yard dash, Burton is a dangerous runnerand proved Friday he can throw it, too. Though he had some passeswobble, he was very poised and confident as he threw against some ofthe best defensive backs at the camp, like Travis Hawkins and JairusJones. And there was no denying his size and strength.

“I really need to work on my fundamentals as a passer,” he said.“I’ve got the running part down but I need a lot more reps to get tothe level I want to be at.”

As a sophomore, Burton had three touchdown runs of 80 yards ormore. He also had 13 touchdowns through the air while throwing for1,300 yards. His coach John Peacock said you can expect his quarterbackto improve quite a bit over his next two high school seasons.

“He is at least three times better now than he was last year, andhe was good last year,” he said. “When he first came in as a freshman,he started at safety and made all the calls and really excelled on thatside of the ball. Last year, we knew with his athletic ability that wehad to get the ball in his hands as much as possible.

“When he develops better touch on his passes and learns to properly check down, he is going to be scary.”

Peacock also raved about Burton’s competitiveness.

“He is as fierce a competitor as I have ever seen,” Peacock said.“He takes everything on the field personally, and that’s what fuels hisdesire to win. Last week at USF, he kept bugging me to let him playdefense so he could cover Plant’s tight end, Orson Charles, who is oneof the best ends in the country.

“So I put him in there and he shut him down. Charles didn’t catch a single pass and Trey had a pick,” Peacock continued.

Burton said that very same competitive nature is what will carry him the next two years and into the next level.

“The better the competition the better I play,” he said. “I expectto play well this week at the camp because I know going up against guysthat are older than me and great at their positions will make meperform at the top of my game.”

As for dealing with the pressure of being a top prospect for the next two seasons, Burton said he’s not sweating it.

“I like pressure when I’m playing but the expectations for our teamis to win a state championship this season,” he said. “We have one ofthe best teams we’ve had in a while, and if we do our thing, we couldwin it all. That’s all I’m thinking about.”

His coach loves to here that from his quarterback.

“We’re fortunate to have a guy who is as hard working and focusedas Trey is,” Peacock said. “To have a leader like him who will not backdown from anybody, I’m really excited to have him for two more years.”

[newsgator]

Wow. Go Venice Indians. I covered them in '97 and '98. They won the 5A state title by racking up a FHSAA-record 77 points in the final in 2000 at Florida Field. Their star RB was Tre Smith, who ended up going to Auburn and was the little bastard that blocked the punt against us in '06 and flipped into the end-zone for the go-ahead TD in our only loss that year.