Lynwood Puts Burnett in Awkward Position, but He Gets Job Done

The Arizona State recruiter stood on the sidelines at Rolling Hills High School last week and watched Lynwood’s Anthony Burnett throw an interception, complete only 2 of 5 passes for 32 yards, and fumble his way through his latest installment of on-the-job training as a quarterback.

The scout allowed as how he was not braving the winds of the Palos Verdes peninsula in search of his school’s next quarterback. “I think if he’s really serious about his future in football, he’ll look to play something other than quarterback,” Don Bocchi said.

Most everyone, including Burnett, seems to agree with that. A weakness in his passing makes him stick out like a sore thumb, he said.

So how is it that, while playing very much out of position and making the least of it, he has remained one of Southern California’s best college prospects?

Simple. He’s a great athlete. That means that a college can look at this 6-foot 2-inch, 180-pound 17-year-old and see a defensive back, a wide receiver, a running back, a kick returner. s

“When you look at a player, he will practically always remind you of somebody,” Bocchi said. “And this guy (Burnett) reminds me of David Fulcher, who played at Fremont High here in L.A. He’s a first-team All-American who can play almost any position.”

Said Dick Lascola, who heads the Scouting Evaluation Assn. of Fallbrook: “I think Mr. Burnett should be able to pick and choose what college or university he wants to go to. I don’t know of any school right now that isn’t interested in him.”

Burnett readily admits that Lynwood (2-1) is better off when he doesn’t try to throw the ball. Running out of the veer offense, however, is another matter.

Heading into tonight’s game at 7:30 at Long Beach Jordan, which features a highly recruited player itself in defensive lineman Dennis Brown, Burnett has completed 7 of 23 attempts for 82 yards, 4 interceptions and no touchdowns. But in the same three games, he leads Lynwood in nearly every rushing category with 218 yards in 40 carries for a 5.45 average. He has a long gain of 57 yards, and 5 touchdowns.

And as Burnett, the team leader on and off the field, goes, so go the Knights. They have outgained their three opponents on the ground, 719 yards to 175, but have been outpassed, 341-82.

As effective a runner as he is, though, defense is Burnett’s specialty. He excels at safety, where he spent most of last season until another player’s injury forced him to also play wide receiver in the playoffs.

Quarterback, which had been Burnett’s position on the junior varsity team, was a one-man operation for the most part with senior Darren Hughes, the San Gabriel Valley League’s most valuable player amassing 1,371 yards and 11 touchdowns passing and another 13 touchdowns rushing.

All of that added up to a nearly perfect season for Lynwood, which had an 11-0 record before losing to El Toro in the Southern Conference quarterfinals, 2-0.

When it was time, however, for Coach Larry Anderson to decide who would replace Hughes this season, there was little doubt in his mind who it should be.

Burnett, the guy who didn’t want it, was the choice.

“He never told me, ‘No, Coach, I don’t want to be the quarterback,’ ” Anderson said. “But I know that he much rather would want to line up mainly on defense, because that’s the position he’s best at. But he is such a competitor that he will do anything to help out the team.”

Lynwood opened the season with a 26-0 win over Compton as Burnett had 26 yards in the air and 36 on the ground. He seemed to warm up to the position in the second game, running for 100 yards and a couple of touchdowns that gave the Knights a 14-0 first-quarter lead over Carson before the Colts came back for a 16-14 win on a fourth-quarter field goal. Still, the No. 1 team in the City was outgained on the ground, 227-162.

Passing? Burnett completed 2 of 11 for 24 yards and 2 interceptions, possibly setting the tone for the way the rest of the season may go for the run-oriented team.

On a scale of 1 to 10, Anderson, now in his fourth year as head coach after 10 as an assistant, rated his quarterback a 5 after last Friday’s 18-7 victory over Rolling Hills. But, he quickly added, Burnett has the potential on physical ability alone and a triple-option offense at his disposal to be a 9 before the end of the season.

“It’s real hard for high school coaches like me to predict how good a player can really be,” he said. “But with another year of him at safety, he could go right in and play safety at a lot of colleges. So, keeping in mind that he still has all this season to improve even more, I think it’s a little bit easier for me to say that he is going to be a great college player.”

There’s not nearly so much guesswork about his talents in track. Burnett has been invited to compete in the Sunkist Invitational in January and made the Southern Section finals in the high jump, triple jump and 110-meter high hurdles as a junior, all of which has a way of getting the attention of college track coaches, too.

“I’d say about one-third of the letters I’ve gotten so far are for track,” he said. “But I’m going to college to play football. I might run track when I get there, but football will be the priority.”

He won’t have to worry about playing quarterback, either.