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The Opening Finals, held at Nike Headquarters in Beaverton, Ore., is a pretty big deal within college football recruiting circles. And this year WSU will be represented with Camm Cooper, the Cougars’ four-star quarterback verbal commit, participating.
For those unfamiliar with the competition, here’s a quick overview from SBNation.com:
This will be the seventh year of the competition, and it’s technically a few different events rolled into one. In order to score an invite, recruits must qualify by attending and performing well in one of the numerous regional Nike recruiting camps throughout the spring. The component containing the players’ testing numbers is now done in an app.
In total, 166 players made the cut in 2017 and get to go to Nike’s massive Beaverton, Ore. campus with expenses paid by the apparel giant. They’ll receive instruction and guidance from an experienced group of trainers.
Cooper, who committed to WSU over offers from Tennessee, Georgia, Arizona State, North Carolina and several others, punched his ticket to The Opening Finals after an impressive performance at the Elite 11 Finals in Los Angeles earlier this month. The 6-foot-4, 200-pounder will now put his skills up against 11 other top quarterbacks this weekend as the group is narrowed down to one and crowned the Elite 11 winner.
Cooper, paired at quarterback with recent Penn State de-commit Justin Fields on Team Mach Speed, will begin 7-on-7 pool play against four other teams on Sunday from 1 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., though the event will not be televised. If, however, Mach Speed advances to the 7-on-7 championship on Monday, you’ll be able to watch on NFL Network at 4 p.m. NFL Network will be airing several hours of the lineman challenge, as well.
A quick look at The Opening rosters, which you can view here, doesn’t show many top Washington State recruiting targets, though I’ll bet Cooper will be in some ears. Staff members from college programs are not allowed to attend the event, per NCAA rules.
To follow along with the coverage, follow @CougCenter and @SBNationRecruiting on Twitter and we’ll be sure to pass along any information on Cooper throughout the weekend.