The Elite 11 Finals officially started today. Our very own Texas Tech quarterback commit, Jett Duffey, will be competing with 17 other national QB recruits at Nike Headquarters in Beaverton, OR.
18 quarterbacks that were invited to the camp. These first few days are more of a practice session for quarterbacks. They will learn from top-level instructors and former players. You can watch it via Periscope.
The real fun starts on Wednesday and runs through Friday as The Opening takes place for the fifth time. This 3-day event works in conjunction with the Elite 11 Finals and is the premier competition pitting the nation's best high schoolers against one another. This year, The Opening invited the top 166 recruits from around the nation based on Student Sports evaluation (both film and in-person). All non-lineman positions will compete in a 7-on-7 tournament. All quarterbacks from the Elite 11 Finals will compete in The Opening 7-on-7 tournament. There are six teams, so three quarterbacks will be on each team.
ESPNU will broadcast the event on July 9th at 7pm and July 10th at 12pm and 7pm. The July 10th broadcast will also incorporate the Lineman Challenge which is obviously the competition for lineman only.
Up to this point, Duffey has showed well at all competitions. He was named MVP at the Charlotte and New Orleans Elite 11 qualifier competitions. In March, he was named a top performer at The Opening regional in Arlington. On top of that, he held his own at the Elite 11 semifinals held in California earlier this spring. Although, he had already earned his spot to the Elite 11 Final in Oregon and didn't have to travel to California to compete, he said he wanted to compete against the best. I like the attitude of wanting to compete regardless of who, when, why and where. I mentioned it in an article the other day in reference to Graham Harrell, but to me attitude separates the goods from the greats. Harrell had the attitude needed to go to the next level. I am not saying that Duffey is (or will be) Graham, but he has the right mindset to me.
We will have updates throughout the week as we can. If nothing else, we will have a full recap of Duffey's performance after the event wraps up.
