Mills admitted, entrenched in national spotlight
Shortly after returning home from an eye-opening performance at The Opening, 2017 Stanford quarterback commit Davis Mills received a key piece of news about his college future. The Rivals100 standout learned that he had been admitted into Stanford University last week.
"It was awesome to know that I'm in and really set for my future," Mills said. "It was great news to hear. The application is a long process, and knowing that the hard work paid off from my schoolwork and my accomplishments, it was awesome."
Cardinal head coach David Shaw shared the news with Mills.
"It was quick, just because I think I was about to play in a 7-on-7 with my school," Mills said. "So it was quick - he was giving me the news and he was really proud of me and excited to share the news with me. It was cool."
In general, now that Mills has been committed to the Cardinal for a number of months and is now past the admissions phase of his recruitment, the nature of his conversations with Stanford have to a certain extent changed. The Cardinal hopes to empower Mills to do his best to help build the Cardinal's 2017 class.
"It's more letting me recruit now for them, really, giving me all the names of the guys they're looking at and just trying to get on the same page and staying in contact with what's been going on in my life and what's been going on in theirs," Mills said.
Mills noted that Foster Sarell, Walker Little, Osiris St. Brown, Salvon Ahmed, K.J. Britt and Tarik Black are among the uncommitted prospects he's targeting.
Not that it matters much to Mills, but the Georgia native is now entering into those conversations as one of the nation's most highly ranked prospects. He's the No. 2 pro-style passer on Rivals.com and a five-star and No. 3 overall prospect on Scout. In general, the recruiting industry has taken notice of a string of spectacular offseason performances and Mills' abilities.
Mills thinks he has made improvements to his game, but said that the new lofty rankings are more a function of increased exposure.
"I guess a little bit combination of (exposure and improvement), but I guess more (exposure)," he said. "I feel like I've always been one of the top guys, I just haven't been on the nation level in front of everybody at the key moments when all of the rankings are coming out. It's just fun to get out there and I guess get the praise, but at the end it's not really about all the rankings and stuff - it's more about winning football games for your high school. It's fun to be ranked pretty high, but at the same time I have to do me and play football."
With that said, Mills' game has taken strides in a number of areas.
"Definitely physical development," Mills said. "I know I've grown a couple of inches every year and definitely put on some weight, so I guess physical development and explosiveness and then just consistency with making all of the passes on the field."
That was on display at The Opening showcase in Oregon, where Mills was widely regarded as one of the best signal callers in attendance.
"It was a great experience," Mills said. "It gave me insight I guess for the next level, being out there with all the top guys and who I'll be playing against for the next couple of years. It was fun to be around everybody and build relationships and play against everybody. So it was just fun."
Mills teamed with fellow Stanford pledge, tight end commit Colby Parkinson, at the event.
"He's awesome," Mills said. "Very smooth at tight end. He's a cool dude and he'll be fun to play with for the next couple of years."
Mills will likely take his official visit to Stanford in January. Before then, he might take an unofficial trip to The Farm for the USC game in September. (It's possible Stanford will host multiple top recruits that weekend.)
