Notre Dame continued its recent run of defensive line success when blue-chip prospect Rylie Mills committed to the Irish. The 6’5″, 275-pound Illinoisan conducted a round of official visits to his finalists in April and didn’t wait too long to make his decision. Mills is ranked as a strong-side defensive end, but in all likelihood he’ll be a 3-tech DT for the Irish. Mike Elston once again earned a triple venti cappuccino, as has been his wont lately, and Tom Rees gets substantial kudos for his role as the secondary recruiter here as well. Why did Notre Dame put their quarterback coach on a DL prospect, you ask? Because Mills goes to Lake Forest High School, which just happens to be Rees’s alma mater. Small world.
Back to Elston for a second… In the 2019 cycle he landed five four-star DL: Isaiah Foskey, NaNa Osafo-Mensah, Jacob Lacey, Hunter Spears, and Howard Cross. In this class he now has two top-150 DL in Jordan Botelho and Mills, and is in a dogfight with Michigan for another top 100 kid in DE Braiden McGregor. Credit where credit is due.
Recruiting Service Rankings
247 Composite — 4 star (0.9422 rating), #122 overall, #8 SDE, #2 in IL
247 Sports — 4 star (92 rating), #170 overall, #8 SDE, #2 in IL
Rivals — 4 star (5.8 rating), #155 overall, #10 SDE, #3 in IL
ESPN — 4 star (83 grade), #132 overall, #14 DE, #2 in IL
Irish Sports Daily — 4 star (92 rating)
Cohort
In addition to Notre Dame, Rylie Mills holds offers from Alabama, Clemson, Florida, Georgia, LSU, Michigan, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Penn State, and Wisconsin, among many others. Ohio State and Wisconsin were his other two finalists, and both really wanted him.
Highlights
Behold a three-minute video of Rylie Mills eating people. Maybe literally, I’m not sure all of them survived or even reappeared. The first thing that stands out is that he’s absolutely massive. Anyone who follows recruiting knows that kids frequently have overstated heights and/or weights. I don’t think Rylie’s dimensions are overstated. The next thing that stands out is that he moves like kid whose height and weight are overstated. His get-off at that size is fantastic, and he often uses it to meet the ball carrier almost at the mesh point. Most of his moves here are pure power, as you might imagine from a guy who dwarfs his competition. He shows some promise as a technique rusher too though; for example, check the play at the 0:28 mark. He uses a swim move to leave the guard grasping at air as he engulfs the quarterback. It was his own sensitive re-enactment of Jerry Tillery vs. Nate Herbig, and it was beautiful.
A couple of other favorite plays: At the 1:13 mark, he fights through a double team on a stretch run to make a tackle for loss; at the 2:18 mark, he chases a play 45 yards downfield and eventually makes the tackle. I think Tillery was more athletic, but Mills has that same package of power, quickness, hustle, and intensity that could turn him into a similar kind of weapon. About the only thing I can complain about is that he tends to stand up a bit too much, but I’m sure Elston can work that out of him fairly easily.
Impact
By the time Rylie Mills gets on campus Notre Dame will have a fully stocked depth chart at defensive tackle, with at least five and possibly seven guys who will have seen meaningful run by then. I expect him to compete for a spot in the two-deep in 2021 and for a starting spot in 2022, as a junior. Yes, a four-star, top 150 defensive tackle will have a couple of years to work on conditioning and technique before being needed in a meaningful game situation. At Notre Dame. Yes, you read all that right… He might not get on the field right away, but when he does I think Mills is going to make plenty of noise and eventually be a high-impact front-line player.
Welcome to the Irish family, Rylie!
Thrilling to see the stockpiling of all these top 125 big guys. Having quality and quantity there is still so clutch. Now can Elston run secondary on some skill players?? (half tongue in cheek).
Mike Elston has done a truly fantastic job on the trail the last few years. The DT depth chart next year will be the best since ??
Man, that’s a good question… Not sure on all the depth, but the 2006 team with Landri and Laws starting at DT and the 1994 team with Gibson and Grasmanis are the first two that come to mind. I’d start there. These starters aren’t there yet but they could be, and I suspect the backups, especially in 2020, will be much better than whoever was there back then.
High times indeed for Irish fans.
To me it’s more the movement about the whole line. Bryan Driskell of BGI tweeted: “Rylie Mills becomes the 8th four-star D-lineman to sign with/commit to #NotreDame in the last two years and ND isn’t done yet in the 2020 class The previous two-year high in the last decade was 5”
Looks like they’re making the effort to get to Bama/Clemson-like status of having multiple waves of d-line that they can rotate and stay fresh, instead of now having 1-2 really good d-linemen that they have to ground to dust by playing almost every snap.
Oh definitely. I think we’ve been marginally more successful on the end than inside, so the DT depth question is worth looking into. But we’re definitely consistently recruiting at a higher level across the line right now than I can remember in the 25 years I’ve been following.
The 2020 class doesn’t and won’t approach the 2011 class, which featured #9 Lynch, #26 OLB/DE Ishaq Williams, #31 Tuitt, and #179 Niklas, but that class was the grass-fed Angus patty on a rather soggy 2010/2012 bun – Nix, Schembo, Schwenke, Utupo, and Heggie in 2010, Day, Jones, and Okwara in 2012. (Note that I’m talking about recruiting rankings here, not eventual production.)
The ho hum response here speaks volumes to how far the program has come in recruiting. Excluding vanderdoes, mills would have been maybe the highest dL recruit after 2011-2018, or at least in the mix with day, rochell, Tillery and this has been met with far less fanfare. Great job indeed from Elston and the staff
Good point as well. Here are the top-150 DL who signed and, ahem, matriculated in the Kelly era ordered by 247 Composite overall ranking:
Aaron Lynch, 2011, #9
Ishaq Williams, 2011, #26
Stephon Tuitt, 2011, #31
Louis Nix, 2010, #65
Isaac Rochell, 2013, #111
Sheldon Day, 2012, #115
Jayson Ademilola, 2018, #128
Daelin Hayes, 2016, #133
Andrew Trumbetti, 2014, #147
Darnell Ewell, 2017, #147
Jacob Lacey belongs on this list but he was #172 overall, which just proves that sometimes rankings are stupid. Anyway, in the 2020 class, Jordan Botelho checks in at #120 overall and Mills is right behind him at #122. Braiden McGregor, who we have a very real shot at, is #87 overall and climbing. If we sign all three, that would mean that one quarter of Kelly’s top-150 DL signees would come from one tenth of his recruiting cycles. Insanity.
Well thank you for doing that research. Not sure if I should be impressed or concerned that I knew that much off the top of my head.
I have no preconceived notions that ND will recruit like osu, bama or Clemson up front (or anywhere for that matter) but it’s pretty clear the hit rate is really good on mid 4 stars and above on the d line. I’d give that an 8 out of 10 hit rate (trumbetti was good in 17 post van gorder with Ewell and ishaq as misses) plus hits on Okwara, Kareem, Tillery and a miss on jay hayes for other 4 star d lineman.
Ultimately when they recruit good to very good d lineman they tend to produce which is a good sign moving forward since they have a bunch of 4 star d line talent now
As well as ND is doing so far in 2020 recruiting, Clemson might be signing the best class ever.
This year’s D-line class isn’t just a bunch of high 4 stars, they’re the guys at the top of ND’S board. You have to be thrilled when you land almost all of the guys at the top of your board.