Columbus Elite 11 Regional and Nike NFTC Open Thread

Submitted by Leaders And Best on

The Columbus Elite 11 Regional QB competition is today at 4pm.  Shane Morris is competing against Ryan Burns (Stanford), Malik Zaire (Notre Dame), Matt Alviti (Northwestern), Damion Terry (MSU), Kyle Bolin (Louisville), Mitch Trubisky, and even Jalin Marshall (Ohio).  Other participants of note: DeShone Kizer (2014), Tyler Wiegers (2014), and Jayru Campbell (2015). Here is a preview on ESPN:

http://espn.go.com/high-school/football/events/elite-11/2012/story/_/id/7878184/columbus-elite-11-regional-preview

Hopefully, Shane has a better camp than in Dallas and gets his invite today.

Also, the Columbus Nike NFTC camp is tomorrow morning.  In addition to Morris, other Michigan commits participating are Taco Charlton, David Dawson, Jourdan Lewis, Mike McCray, Logan Tuley-Tillman, and Khalid Hill.  Other commits of note: Ohio commits Marshall, Cameron Burrows, Billy Price, and Alex Anzalone; Sparty commit Jonny Reschke; Notre Dame commit Jacob Matuska. 2014 Michigan players to watch: Drake Harris, Damon Webb, Gary Hosey, Deon Drake, William White, & Lorenzo Collins. Preview on Scout.com:

http://recruiting.scout.com/2/1183576.html

Should be an interesting weekend as will probably be a large collection of Midwest talent competing against each other.  Look forward to hearing the reports to see how our commits perform.  I will try to add the twitter handles of the ESPN experts covering the events later (or if someone has them add them below) for real time updates on the competitions.

BDS

May 4th, 2012 at 10:37 AM ^

Good size, strong arm, solid athlete. Not a true dual-threat but can make things happen when things break down. I'm really interested to see how he stacks up to the competition since he isn't even rated on some services.

MrVociferous

May 4th, 2012 at 9:51 AM ^

Malik McDowell from Cass Tech will be there on Saturday as well.  Should be one of the top 2014 prospects in Michigan.

Pretty much anyone good from Cass Tech will be there.  They are driving down like 20 kids.

Philbert

May 4th, 2012 at 10:24 AM ^

McDowell is from Cass? I thought he was like layola or something? I'm not from around the area but I never remember him being mentioned with all the cass kids.

MGoShoe

May 4th, 2012 at 9:54 AM ^

...I'm looking forward to hearing about Khalid Hill's performance as this is his first opportunity to show he deserves better rankings than he currently receives from all of the services.

/not a member of the 3-star mafia

Genzilla

May 4th, 2012 at 10:32 AM ^

By all accounts these two are really good passers and not just running QB's. Hopefully they both go blue in the future. I'd hate to see the coaches take Stewart over Kizer in 2014 based on playing style when Kizer is supposed to be just as talented as a passer (just more athletic)

Magnum P.I.

May 4th, 2012 at 10:34 AM ^

I'm curious why only a fraction of our MI and OH recruits are going to be present at this event. No Conley, Shallman, Gedeon, Dukes, etc. Does anyone know: do those guys not have invitations or do they just decide not to attend? It guess it would make sense if they didn't see a lot of value in participating in something like this after already wrapping up their recruitment, but it'd be cool to see the comradery of having all the local guys there.

Leaders And Best

May 4th, 2012 at 10:39 AM ^

I'm sure some of these kids may have other commitments like school activities, spring sports (I know it has been reported Dymonte Thomas plays baseball for instance), etc.  Actually, I think it is a pretty good turnout overall considering the reported names so far may not even be a final list of attendees.  It is quite possible some of those kids you mentioned may actually end up being there, but no one has actually reported it yet.

Magnum P.I.

May 4th, 2012 at 11:05 AM ^

Makes sense. I'm not complaining over the turnout at all, but given that we already have 15 (!) verbals from MI, OH, and IL kids, it'd be pretty awesome for them all to descend on this competition and just dominate it. It'd be a great publicitiy for U-M and would relegate the handful of Ohio commits to the backpage. 

Leaders And Best

May 4th, 2012 at 11:15 AM ^

But 7 (that we know so far) out of 14 MI and OH commits will be there so that is not too bad and will outnumber any other school there.  I think the publicity will be there even with only 7 commits. Also, there is an NFTC camp in Champaign, IL next month so I am guessing most of the Illinois prospects may attend that one instead.

RakeFight

May 4th, 2012 at 11:38 AM ^

Am I wrong in thinking that these kids have to pay $$ to participate in these camps?  I'm pretty sure they do.  Add that to the fact that they've already wrapped up their recruitment, and it seems the the motivation to participate is pretty low.

Leaders And Best

May 4th, 2012 at 11:55 AM ^

Nike NFTC invites players to their camps based on their performances at Nike SPARQ Combines or submitted highlight films.  Kind of a coup for NIke/ESPN and other recruiting services.  Kids attend, and it helps them evaluate and rank players and push their products.  I don't think it is a surprise that ESPN puts out their first update to the ESPN150 in June after most of the Nike NFTC camps are completed.

But some other camps are pay to attend affairs.

MrVociferous

May 4th, 2012 at 2:32 PM ^

Elite 11 is $40 to attend.  And the one thing that lures in the top recruits are the invites to The Opening and the Elite 11 Finals.  Those are all-expenses paid affairs and are pretty cool trips for a high school kid to take.  But you can only get an invite by going to one of these camps.

MrVociferous

May 4th, 2012 at 2:27 PM ^

Some guys just don't want to risk it by attending one of these camps.  If you're already committed, there's not much positive that can happen for you by attending.  You get weighed and measured, you can get hurt, or in the case of Caleb Brantley at the Orlando camp, you can get crushed in your one-on-one drills and lose some luster from your recruiting star.

Or sometimes they are just high school kids and have things like prom that are more important.

Leaders And Best

May 4th, 2012 at 11:02 AM ^

Hopefully Ace will post some twitter accounts to follow this afternoon.  Some people that will be in attendance is the ESPN and Wolverine Nation staff (TomVH, Chantel Jennings, Jared Shanker, Craig Haubert, Brian Stumpf, etc.) and Scout.com (Allen Trieu, Sam Webb, Josh Newkirk).  Not sure how many of these reporters will live tweet it though.  During the Dallas NFTC/Elite11, there was a couple ESPN reporters who did a pretty good job of it.

RakeFight

May 4th, 2012 at 10:49 AM ^

I see Darius Latham will be there... uncommited 4* DT with a Michigan offer.  Anyone have any info on his recruitment?  We sure could use a couple of more D linemen.

Hands Free

May 4th, 2012 at 10:55 AM ^

I think Shane will really shine in this one with it being hosted in the Midwest.  He should feel more comfortable than when he was in Texas, and will want to show the folks in Columbus that he will be a future nightmare for them.

I'm really interested to see how Khalid Hill fares - big stage with good competition and a chance to raise his stock.

MrVociferous

May 4th, 2012 at 2:37 PM ^

It'll be interesting to see how Shane responds to the pressure at this camp.  There are a LOT of expectations for him to do well.  And given how he fared in Dallas, that's a lot to live up too. He's got some good competition at this camp too.

Leaders And Best

May 4th, 2012 at 4:26 PM ^

Per twitter, Dave Berk of Scout thinks Zaire (ND) and Terry (MSU) look good so far. TomVH says Kizer passes the eye test. 247sports Barton Simmons singled out Danny Etling (Purdue) for spinning it well

Leaders And Best

May 4th, 2012 at 6:13 PM ^

TomVH: I've been impressed with Notre Dame commit Malik Zaire today. Not the tallest guy but good arm.

Man, Morris and Malik Zaire both look great today.

Barton Simmons of 247: Zaire (ND) and Etling (Purdue) look sharp early.

Early on Danny Etling is my guy. I think Purdue is getting a good one.

I don't think Jalin Marshall is a QB but it ain't cause he can't throw. He's just small and way too valuable as an athlete elsewhere but he can throw it.

Northwestern commit Matt Alviti has been really solid; a guy that's not that flashy but just makes throws.

Steve Wiltfong of 247: Michigan commit Shane Morris and Max Staver throwing well, live arms.

Mentor High four star Mitch Trubisky is a good looking prospect, was accurate with nice touch on rollouts.

Kentucky 2014 QB Drew Barker and Northwestern QB commit Matt Alviti are throwing well. Alviti inparticular is hitting his WRs in stride. Matt Alviti just thrives in this setting; smooth delivery and accurate.

Toledo Central Catholic QB DeShone Kizer was the top 2014 I saw through drills.

Purdue is getting a really nice player in Danny Etling. Quick release with zip. Purdue commit Danny Etling is on fire. Hitting throw after throw.

Jalin Marshall may be better suited for the WR position but the Ohio State commit could win games as a college QB. He's getting better as the day goes on.

Josh Helmholdt Rivals: Purdue commit Danny Etling throwing the ball well out here at Elite 11. Big kid w/ an effortless motion.

MichiganState commit Damion Terry is a big kid with a big arm.

Michigan commit Shane Morris doing a good job of throttling down. Spinning the ball well, accurate

Bob Lichtenfels Scout: Shane Morris and Max Staver look like the cream of the crop at the Columbus Elite 11

Chantel Jennings of WolverineNation: Malik Zaire (ND), Shane Morris (Michigan), Jalin Marshall (OSU) and Deshone Kizer (2014) all looking good so far.

Jared Shanker ESPN: Coaches are loving Zaire right now. Ohio QBs darron lee and Tyler jones look good on roll out drills

Leaders And Best

May 4th, 2012 at 10:18 PM ^

Obviously Shane was #1 in both.  For 247Sports, Purdue commit Danny Etling was #2, ND commit Mailk Zaire was #6, and Northwestern commite Matt Alviti was #7.  MSU commit Damion Terry was not mentioned.

http://247sports.com/Article/Ohio-Elite-11-top-performers-72752

Scout.com concurred with high evaluations for Zaire and Etling, but they were much higher on Damion Terry who broke the top 5 for some of the analysts like Allen Trieu and Bob Lichtenfels.

http://recruiting.scout.com/2/1183921.html