Nix shines at Five-Star Challenge

ATLANTA | Mission accomplished for Bo Nix in Atlanta. Next up is Texas.

The Auburn commitment from Pinson Valley in Pinson, Ala., was the top quarterback during the Rivals100 Five-Star Challenge Thursday, winning the skills competition, leading his team to the 7-on-7 championship and earning quarterback MVP.

“It was just awesome,” Nix said. “To be able to compete against the top quarterbacks here and win is just really neat. The competition is just really good and I’m thankful to be here.”

Nix competed with a number of the nation’s top quarterback prospects in Mercedes-Benz Stadium including Wisconsin commit Graham Mertz, Florida State commit Sam Howell, South Carolina commit Ryan Hilinski, Arizona commit Grant Gunnell and Notre Dame 2020 commit Drew Pyne.

“This is the first time seeing Bo throw live and he looks really good, really good,” said QB Country’s David Morris, who worked with the group during the Five-Star Challenge. “You can tell he’s kind of grown up throwing the ball, just a real pure, quick motion. There’s not a throw he can’t make. He was ripping them on some of the drill work.

“I was kind of curious what his touch was going to be because sometimes guys with big arms kind of struggle with touch, but his touch was better than anybody else’s out here."

With Nix’s impressive performance at the Five-Star Challenge, the question now turns to whether or not he will earn a coveted fifth star from Rivals. Nix came into the competition already ranked as a four-star and the nation’s No. 1 pro-style quarterback and No. 40 overall prospect.

“I don’t have an answer for that right now,” said Mike Farrell, Rivals national director of recruiting. “We’ll meet as a team and talk about that. For me, it’s been Bo Nix first, Graham Mertz second at quarterback, and there’s been a huge drop-off after that.

“Bo’s got more zip on the ball than I think anyone else here. He’s shown great accuracy. His footwork has been excellent. And watching him in 1-on-1’s, his accuracy has been excellent downfield too.”

Rivals currently has 21 five-stars in the 2019 class, which will expand to 32-35 by the time the final rankings are released in January.

“The last time we didn’t have a five-star quarterback was 2011 so it’s pretty rare,” Farrell said. “Our next ranking is August when we usually add two or three because summer isn’t a great evaluation period. It’s a lot of 7-on-7 stuff. We’ll add even more after their senior season. That’s going to be an important one in November.

“We usually finish after the all-star games. We usually add 7-8 at the very end. We’ll probably have 25 to 28 going into that.”

Nix will leave directly from Atlanta and fly to Frisco, Texas Friday to compete in The Opening Finals June 30 through July 3. He's scheduled to graduate high school in December and enroll at Auburn in January.