Welcome to The Crootletter (sign up to get this in your inbox every morning!). I'm Bud Elliott, SB Nation's National Recruiting Analyst, and in this space I'll be sharing news, rumors and musings on the world of college football recruiting.
BEAVERTON, Ore. -- What happens when 12 of the best quarterback recruits get together at Nike's headquarters for the Elite 11 portion of The Opening? Wednesday, they worked on fundamentals, made throws to receivers who weren't covered, and installed the playbooks that will be used during the seven-on-seven portion of The Opening once all the elite recruits at other positions arrive Saturday and Sunday.
It's hard to stand out without a pass rush or even pass defenders. Almost everyone looked great, though struggling without those impediments would be a story. Unsurprisingly, Clemson's Hunter Johnson and Stanford's Davis Mills consistently threw passes on target and with good velocity. Alabama's Tua Tagovailoa showed off a huge arm, probably the strongest of the event, though touch will be something he continues to refine going forward.
Nobody looked badly out of place. In my opinion, this is a result of the decision to bring 12 QBs instead of 18 to Oregon for the event this year.
What did stand out, however, was the lack of height. More to come on this later in the week, but last year the event was filled with very tall quarterbacks -- almost three quarters were listed as taller than 6'2. This year almost half are listed at 6'2 or shorter, and many on the sidelines were remarking about the lack of stature of the class.
So what does a media outlet do when the setting makes it difficult to differentiate the best from the average? Shoot video. Lots and lots of video that will appear on this website in the coming days and months.
For continued coverage of The Elite 11 and The Opening, follow us on Twitter: @SBNRecruiting and @Alex_Kirshner, Facebook: SB Nation College Football, SnapChat: SBNationCFB, and Instagram: SB Nation College Football.
This year's Elite 11 roster:
| PLAYER | STATE | COMMITTED TO |
| DAVIS MILLS | GEORGIA | STANFORD |
| HUNTER JOHNSON | INDIANA | CLEMSON |
| CHRIS ROBISON | TEXAS | OKLAHOMA |
| DYLAN MCCAFFREY | COLORADO | MICHIGAN |
| JACK SEARS | CALIFORNIA | |
| JAKE FROMM | GEORGIA | GEORGIA |
| MYLES BRENNAN | MISSISSIPPI | LSU |
| SAM EHLINGER | TEXAS | TEXAS |
| SEAN CLIFFORD | OHIO | PENN STATE |
| TATE MARTELL | NEVADA | OHIO STATE |
| TOMMY DEVITO | NEW JERSEY | SYRACUSE |
| TUA TAGOVAILOA | HAWAII | ALABAMA |
Quickly
We talked with four-star Georgia QB commit Jake Fromm. He talked about flipping from Alabama to Georgia earlier this year, and also said steak and 'taters the night before the game gets the job done.
TCU got a big boost to its 2016 class from Brandon Bowen, a four-star defensive end that was one of the 2016 signees that Baylor released from a National Letter of Intent. With Bowen finding a home at TCU, every player released by Baylor has settled somewhere else.
Four-star cornerback Deon Jones committed to Maryland on Wednesday, giving the Terps boost at a position where they needed some help.
Michigan landed four-star offensive tackle Kai-Leon Herbert over Florida and Miami. And while we're on the topic of the Wolverines, they are bringing in 2018 five-star DE Micah Parsons for a visit later this summer. Parsons is currently a Penn State commit.
Four-star defensive end Tyjuan Garbutt decommitted from Virginia Tech, but also named the Hokies his leader in the same tweet announcing his decommitment.