4-star QB Oscar Rios earns final invite to Elite 11 Finals

Downey (Calif.) four-star quarterback Oscar Rios won’t have to go too far to compete with the nation’s best passers next month. On Friday, Rios grabbed one of the final spots in the Elite 11 Finals set to take place in Los Angeles June 17-19.

There are few higher honors for prep quarterbacks than being invited to the event, which will celebrate its 26th year in 2025. It bring together 20 of the country’s best quarterbacks for three days, ultimately ending with an MVP and 10 other ‘finalists’ being named.

Elite 11 Finals alumni include Carson Palmer, Andrew Luck, Matthew Stafford, Tim Tebow, and more recently Trevor Lawrence, C.J. Stroud, Bryce Young, Dylan Raiola and DJ Lagway. Last year’s Elite 11 Finals featured more than a dozen of the top 20 quarterbacks in the final On3 Industry Rankings, including five of the top six players at the position.

Rios joins the following invitees in this year’s crop: Tennessee commit Faizon Brandon, Houston commit Keisean Henderson, Texas commit Dia Bell, USC pledge Jonas Williams, Miami verbal Dereon Coleman, Iowa State’s Jett Thomalla, Louisville commit Briggs Cherry, Texas A&M commit Helaman Casuga, Washington pledge Derek Zammit, Arizona State verbal Jake Fette, uncommitted four-star Landon Duckworth, Boise State commit Bryson Beaver, Florida pledge Will Griffin, Clemson commit Tait Reynolds, uncommitted four-star Matt Ponatoski, Duke pledge Terry Walker III, uncommitted four-star Bowe Bentley, North Carolina commit Travis Burgess, and Penn State commit Troy Huhn.

Rios still looking to find his college home

The 6-foot-3, 170-pounder made an early commitment to Purdue, but ultimately backed off that and reopened his recruitment.

Last month, he named Kentucky, Oklahoma State, Virginia Tech, UCLA, Arizona, Colorado and Utah as his top seven schools. He already took official visits with the Wildcats and Cowboys, and still has a few more on the docket. He’ll head to Virginia Tech on May 30 before stops at Utah (June 6), Arizona (June 13) and Colorado (June 20).

He’s among the most sought-after uncommitted passers in the country and will be until he makes his next commitment. And earlier this month, he was also one of the top performers at Under Armour’s Next+ camp in Los Angeles.

“Without a doubt, the most consistent performer out of all three sessions at the UA L.A. event was QB Oscar Rios,” wrote On3 National Scout Cody Bellaire. “His ball placement was superb all day long and has such polished and clean mechanics. Rios, despite being on the leaner end for the position, is still able to put high RPM’s on the football due to his natural arm action and whip. He’s able to generate such good velocity and throw the football from multiple arm angles while manipulating it with perfect placement. Rios checked all of the boxes in today’s workout and looked like one of the top gunslingers in the 2026 cycle.”

As a sophomore, Rios passed for 2,633 yards and 23 touchdowns with 767 yards rushing and seven more scores. His junior year numbers looked quite similar — 2,554 passing yards, 22 passing touchdowns, 735 rushing yards and 11 more scores on the ground.