BEAVERTON, Ore. -- The teams are seeded for the Nike 7ON tournament on the final day of The Opening and leading the charge for the 'Field Generals' team is Norcross (Ga.) running back Alvin Kamara. A blur at times with the ball during pool play on Saturday, the shifty pass catcher helped lead his team to the No. 2 seed and was moving the ball downfield as part of a larger strategy that called for shorter passes to open up the deep passing game for quarterback Max Browne.
"That's basically what coach (Dan) Hawkins wanted to do, get me and Ryan Green on the same team and work it," Kamara said. "It's kind of formed around me and him, the two running backs. We're getting some good looks, getting the ball and catching it. We have great receivers outside too with Alvin Bailey from Florida and a few other guys that are real good too."
The 5-foot-10, 195-pounder is one of the top players at the event and it's easy to see why when he darts around the field making defenders look foolish. Kamara earned the running backs MVP award at the Atlanta Nike Camp and an invite to The Opening at the same time and ever since then he was locked into doing well up in Oregon.
"It's real fun, I've been looking forward to it since I got the invite," he said. "Just hanging out with some of the guys, they're living the same way we are being some of the top recruits in the nation. It's fun to be out here with them."
As one of the uncommitted guys at the event and someone college across the country are chasing, Kamara gets more than his fair share of fellow recruits looking to whisper in his ear that their school is for him.
"Every guy I talk to," Kamara said with a laugh. "I guess I'm kind of a target. The Georgia guys, Shaq Wiggins and Tray Matthews, and the South Carolina guys are coming at me. Everybody is, USC, Oregon, Alabama. It's been fun."
The funniest pitch to commit to a school, however, came from Kamara's good friend and one of the aforementioned fellow Georgians.
"It's definitely Shaq," Kamara said. "He'll just come around and start laughing and say, 'You just need to go ahead and be a 'Dawg.' He met my mom one trip up to Athens and he asked my mom where she wants me to go and she said Georgia, so he always holds that against me."
Kamara recently named a top 10 that included schools such as Auburn, Alabama, Clemson, Georgia, Oregon and USC among others but is hoping to cut the list even further in the coming weeks before eventually committing before the fall.
"I've named a top 10 and by the end of the summer, I want to commit," he said. "For me, it's about a feeling so if I feel like it's the right time, I'll go ahead and do it. If it's not, then I'll keep picking and choosing my visits and see how long it will take me.
"It's just a feeling really. Most guys look at depth charts but guys like Altee (Tenpenny) is out here but with the Alabama situation, all those guys welcome competition and want to be with the best of the best. So Altee was pitching for me to come to Alabama so it's all fun."
After The Opening, the tailback has a busy couple of weeks as he looks to squeeze in a few final unofficial visits. Kamara will likely take several official visits but before reach that point he'll take in a few sights and sounds of the Southeast first.
"I'll be at Dawg Night (at Georgia) and will try and take a visit to Tennessee," he said. "It will be nice to go up and hang out with those guys. Alabama too and then I'm not sure about any other ones but I'll definitely be taking an official visit to Oregon but I don't have a date set."
