New RPM for Texas to land out-of-state offensive lineman
Recruiting can be funny. Everyone assumes schools recruit prospects, but sometimes prospects recruit the school. That’s the case, at least initially, with John Mills.
San Francisco isn’t a hotbed for Texas recruiting, but Mills, from St. Ignatius College Preparatory, didn’t care about that when he visited UT for a Summer camp.
As he told Inside Texas in early February, “That was a cold call, just going to the camp. I was interested in Texas. I had, I think, three offers, which was Washington, Nevada, and UCLA. I don’t even know if I had UCLA. Texas was always a high priority to me. I love the Texas culture. I went out there and came back for a game day visit, Wyoming, which they invited me out to. We were eating and Coach Zoloty said Coach Flood wants to meet with you. He brought me in and offered me. That was one of the craziest moments, that and the Washington offer, my first one.”
That early quote, along with quotes received tonight after he dropped his Top 6 schools, inform this prediction for Mills to eventually commit to Texas.
Here are those six schools:
Why predict Texas to win out when these quality schools are heavily involved? Well, there’s a lot of embedded knowledge in the above quote. Mills sought out Texas and in return Texas sought him back. We also know he’ll visit Texas for the big April 6 weekend. Mills mentioned to IT this evening that makes up for him not being able to attend the June 21-23 official visit weekend.
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Now, IT isn’t sure that final weekend before the dead period takes more priority over other weekends in June but that will clearly be a star-studded gathering. Instead of that weekend, Mills will attend the June 14-16 weekend in Austin. The reason being his parents will be able to join him. They’ll be out of the country the following week as his godparents join him for his USC official visit. That’s a pretty interesting data point.
I don’t like the “large human” narrative. I think it degrades the many paths to becoming a quality offensive lineman. But, there’s no discounting the fact that at 6-foot-6, 325 pounds, Mills fits the specs for what Texas offensive line coach Kyle Flood seeks. Oh, and he’s only 16-years-old. Meaning, the way he currently moves at that size will only improve as he enters a college S&C program. That’s called projection and it’s a driving force for why networks are so often wrong on their ratings for ‘bigs’. It’s how a three-star “over-performs.”
Projections are predictions. I predict Mills will ultimately decide to be a Longhorn and I’ve attached 60% confidence to it.
