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The Elite 11 camp is regarded as the nation’s premier prep quarterback competition with most of the camp’s 11 finalist going on to enjoy prolific college, and oftentimes, pro football careers.
The Elite 11 camps selects the top performers from the Nike camp and invites them to any of the six regional camps. After the regional camps, the Top 11 quarterbacks will be selected based on camp performance and tape evaluation to participate in a five-day camp in Southern California in July.
Past participants of the Elite 11 competition include such names as Carson Palmer, Matt Leinart, Vince Young, Kyle Orton, Drew Brees, Aaron Rodgers, Matthew Stafford, Mark Sanchez, Tim Tebow and BYU’s Jake Heaps among many others.
This past weekend, BYU commit Tanner Mangum and Utah commit Travis Wilson participated in one of the regional camps held in Berkeley, Calif.
“You want to compete against the best and measure yourself against the best and participating in the Elite 11 is a great chance to do just that,” Mangum said. “I’ve wanted to compete in the Elite 11 for a long time now, and I’m happy to have had that chance.”
The camp involves a lot of different drills designed to measure every important aspect involved in great quarterback play.
“I didn’t go in there, just showing up, I’ve practiced every drill they run over-and-over again with some of my wide receivers,” said the 6-foot-3, 180-pound Eagle, Idaho, native. “I wanted to make sure that I represented not only myself but the state of Idaho well. I was the only participant from Idaho, and the only quarterback from Idaho to be named in the final Elite 11 was Cody Hawkins.”
Mangum committed to sign with BYU in early April. Following this coming senior season, he’ll leave immediately for his LDS mission, and will join the BYU football program upon completion of his two-year service.
For right now, however, his focus is to compete as well as possible in the Elite 11 camp.
“He’s a guy that has really flown under the radar,” said scout.com’s national recruiting analyst Brandon Huffman. “He was a guy that I was really impressed with, and I think that BYU got a really good one. He has a really good arm, really good footwork as well. He throws the ball really well, but when you get to see the mobility he has that’s where I was impressed.”
The final participants for the final Elite 11 will be named in a couple of weeks, shortly after they finish up the final regional camp held at Ohio State on May 20. Mangum, like any participant, hopes to be named as one of the 11 finalists.
“It would be a huge honor for me and for my state,” he said. “I followed Jake Heaps being named as one of the finalists last year, and it would be great to continue doing that, as someone who is committed to BYU and will play there.”
Even if he isn’t named as one of the 11 finalists, Mangum will take a lot from his one-day camp experience, competing among the region’s best.
“I’ll admit to being a little nervous going in,” he said. “I’ve played well against competition here in Idaho, but you never really know how you’re going to stack up against all those kids from the big schools in Southern California, until you’re actually there. Now, after being through all that, I’m very confident that I belong there, and I can play and compete against the very best.”
