If you follow recruiting patterns and prospects that take numerous visits to a certain school, it can sometimes be a guide on predicting where a recruit will wind up playing his college ball. That turned out to be true in the case of John Mills, who had taken four unofficial visits to see the Texas Longhorns in addition to a June official visit before he announced his Texas commitment on Monday night.

Mills, out of San Francisco St. Ignatius, chose the Longhorns over Washington. Programs like Nebraska and Cal were also involved.

Two weekends ago, Mills took his Texas official visit and he came out of that trip giving the Longhorns very high marks, as he’d done following his previous visits to Austin.

“The takeaways from the official were just that I liked the coaches a lot. … My brother came with me on the visit and he liked it too,” Mills said. “With coach (Kyle) Flood, he knows that maybe all five of his starting linemen will leave, so he constantly reminds me that you have to remember where you can get developed, that you need to go to a spot where you fit the best and can develop yourself. And go to a spot where you can surround yourself with good players, which is Texas. That was super cool to hear. It just shows me that there are a lot of things I have to take into consideration. It was cool to talk to him.”

The 6-6, 315-pound Mills had pretty much narrowed first landed on UT’s radar after he attended a Texas summer camp in 2023. He picked up a Texas offer shortly after that performance and has been building a strong bond with UT offensive line coach Kyle Flood ever since.

“Texas is a great place to be. I’ve been there like five times with the OV and the camp,” Mills told Orangebloods following his official visit earlier this month. “It was a great experience there.”

A three-star prospect, Mills becomes the Longhorns’ fourth offensive line commitment, joining Jackson Christian, Jordan Coleman and Devin Coleman. The message from the Texas coaches during his recruitment has been to simply be a part of a championship program that’s being built in Austin.

“Their message to me was that they think I could help the team and be a force multiplier with my attitude and how I act, and that we could go win a national championship,” Mills said.