Kopp parlays breakout Elite 11 performance into an offer

Before this week, Maddox Kopp was an unranked quarterback from Houston, Texas, who was traveling to middle Tennessee to compete in the Elite 11 quarterback competition, hoping to make a name for himself.

Now, after Thursday morning, he is the proud owner of a scholarship offer from Ole Miss and is most likely going to be fielding several calls, texts, direct messages and more from other colleges wanting to get to know the strong-armed signal caller who flashed his talents for Trent Dilfer and Co.

The 6-foot-5, 212-pounder from St. Thomas High School arrived in Murfreesboro as a relatively unknown commodity, but he left with respect coming out of his ears. The three-star quarterback burst onto the scene on Day One, winning the famous Rail Shot Competition over five-star Caleb Williams. After that, he had everyone's attention.

After three days of turning heads in the Volunteer State, Kopp had folks attention as he started hearing from Power 5 programs like Colorado, Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech and Vanderbilt. Also a part of that list was Ole Miss. And Jeff Lebby wasted little time submitting an offer.

"Right now I'm trying to gather as much information as I can," Kopp said. "Coach Lebby offered me this morning...I have never been to campus so I am planning on going there when we're able to."

Rivals' Woody Wommack was at the event alongside me and, like me, came away impressed by Kopp's performance.

"Kopp might be one of the best-kept secrets in the class at the position and he impressed from the first throw on Monday night. Kopp has great size and the frame to bulk up even more. He is still pretty raw, due in part to the fact that he was also a notable basketball prospect who has split time between both sports. Several schools, including Houston, are still in the mix and whoever lands him is likely getting a steal."

I, too, think he is going to be a steal for whoever lands him. He was decisive in his delivery of the football all three days and showed a knack for the big throw in crunch time. Kopp was comfortable throwing on or off platform, making it look easy at times with his tremendous arm talent. His 6-5 frame was as advertised and his accuracy and velocity was impressive as well throughout the week.

Maddox told me he’s in no hurry to make a decision right now and isn’t going to rush things due to the unprecedented times we are dealing with.

"I don't have a timetable," Kopp said. "I'm going to continue gathering information on every potential opportunity I have."

As a junior at St. Thomas, Kopp passed for 3,076 yards and 28 touchdowns in his first year as the starter. I expect his offer sheet to continue to grow and for his decision to get even harder once the options continue to expand.