Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver T.J. Houshmandzadeh took one look at Aaron Murray and knew he was a winner.
Houshmandzadeh first spotted the Plant High quarterback in action at last week's Nike "7 On"
Football Tournament in Beaverton, Ore. Sure enough, Murray led his Plant team to the championship.
The Pro Bowl wideout got a glimpse of Murray again this past week during workouts at the Elite 11 Quarterback Camp. Catching balls thrown by Murray, Houshmandzadeh's initial impression didn't change. And once again, Murray came out on top.
Murray was named the Elite 11 Most Valuable Player on Thursday following four days of intense training and workouts with some of the best high school quarterbacks in the nation.
"Most of all I wanted to come out here and have fun,"
said Murray, who has committed to the University of Georgia. "Being the MVP is the biggest honor."
Celebrating 10 years of bringing together the best young passers in the country, the invitation-only Elite 11 camp has hosted a who's who of quarterbacks. Past participants include Matt Leinart, Vince Young and JaMarcus Russell. The quarterbacks run through a series of drills and attend classroom sessions.
At the end of the final day, when awards were handed out, Murray also earned the Best Leader award.
College quarterbacks serving as camp counselors voted on all the awards after monitoring their high school counterparts throughout the week. USC's Mark Sanchez, Texas' Colt McCoy, Georgia's Matthew Stafford and Missouri's Chase Daniel were some of the voters who ultimately decided that Murray was the best of the best.
"As soon as I saw him last week at the Nike thing I was like, man, this school from Florida is going to win it all because of the quarterback,"
said Houshmandzadeh, who joined Cincinnati teammate Carson Palmer for a day of training with the young quarterbacks.
Murray capped off his last day at the Elite 11 camp by posing for photos with several of his fellow competitors, as well as the college quarterbacks who deemed him the best. Daniel spent some extra time with Murray giving him advice, while the Plant QB soaked it all in.
"I learned that you've got to compete if you want to be the best,"
Murray said. "I want my team to be the best, so I've got to compete harder than anybody else. I learned a lot of fundamentals that I'm going to take back to Tampa and a couple new plays also."
