Sgt. Aaron Cooper, who teaches combatives at Fort Benning, knows a lot about hand-to-hand combat.

But Saturday, on the Georgia Tech campus, the 24-year-old Ranger will be judged on how well he performs in hand-to-mouth competition.

As one of five finalists in a national burrito-eating contest, sponsored by Moe's Southwest Grill, Cooper will have eight minutes to stuff down as many one-pound "Joey Bag of Donuts" as he can.

Don't be misled: a Joey Bag is a type of burrito, one filled with three ounces of rice, four ounces of black beans, two ounces of ground beef, one ounce of shredded jack cheese and one ounce of pico de gallo wrapped in a 12-inch tortilla.

It's the Moe's version of the Four Winds' Ranger burger.

Cooper, who spent four combat tours as a Ranger in Iraq and Afghanistan before joining the staff of instructors at the Army's Combatives School, is not concerned about his competition.

"I just have to eat more than they do," he said with a laugh.

During preliminary rounds on the local level, the contest rules were different.

"We had to eat three of those burritos in the quickest amount of time," he said of a mid-July eat-off at the Moe's in Columbus Park Crossing. "I did it seven minutes."

That qualified him for the next round.

"By then I'd started reading about the different techniques that speed-eaters use, especially people like (Takeru) Kobayashi," he said. "I learned how important water was to successful eating. It helps to expand the stomach."

Using his new-learned techniques, he breezed through the second round in three minutes, 10 seconds.

"I put one of the burritos away in 24 seconds," he said.

Nathan Stewart, manager of the local Moe's, said Wednesday he fully expects Cooper to compete for the title.

"He comes in every two or three days and we set him up with eight burritos," Stewart said. "And then we start the watch. His best so far is seven in eight minutes, but I expect he'll be able to eat eight on Saturday."

Unlike the stereotypical 300-pound-plus speed-eater, Cooper is a solid 5-11 and 185, who competes regularly in the martial arts.

In fact, he'd planned to separate from the Army and concentrate on a career in the ring before landing his current combatives job.

But, he'll admit, before he took his visiting parents out to dinner last month, he had no desire to become a speed-eater.

"We'd finished eating at Moe's, and I was paying the bill at the register when I saw a poster that said 'Win Burritos for Life,'" he said. But free burritos, though enticing, aren't what convinced him to enter the contest.

"I wanted to win the chopper," he said, noting that the national winner receives a Bourget Python 330 custom-designed motorcycle. That's my motivation."