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Inside The Huskies

John Mills' Name Continues to Circulate, Pick Up Honors

The offensive guard turns up on another All-American list and a top sophomores ranking.
Dan Raley|
Husky offensive guard John Mills continues to receive preseason attention.
Husky offensive guard John Mills continues to receive preseason attention. | Dave Sizer photo

John Mills continues to cut a wide swath through Montlake as one of the leaders for this soon to be unveiled University of Washington football team.

Every day, you can hear him walk on to the practice field, letting out the occasional war cry, as this expressive second-year offensive guard joins his followers, make that teammates, to do battle.

While everyone around him is well versed on all things John Mills, the rest of the college football world continues to catch up and learn about this 6-foot-6, 325-pound medieval warrior lookalike to rubber-stamp his talent.

John Mills has that distinctive medieval warrior look going on.
John Mills has that distinctive medieval warrior look going on. | Dave Sizer photo

On Wednesday, Pro Football Focus ranked him as the eighth best sophomore across the land whereas last week the College Sports Company determined he was a preseason third-team All-American selection.

Why do we think it's only a matter of time before he moves near the top of every one of these top 10 lists and slides into first-team rarefied air when the game's best are singled out in an 11-man setting?

It's not all that far-fetched.

Again, Mills arrived in Montlake in 2025 and as a freshman became a starter at left offensive guard from the first game without any arguments, something no other offensive lineman has done in the history of the program.

And when the need arose, he effortlessly moved over to right tackle and started a pair of games there, too.

PPF, the analytics whiz, has decided that, in this order, the following sophomores should be rated higher than MIlls: Miami receiver Malachi Toney, Notre Dame quarterback CJ Carr, Notre Dame safety Brauntae Johnson, Oklahoma State running back Caleb Hawkins, California quarterback Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele, Alabama cornerback Dijon Lee Jr. and Oklahoma running back Bo Jackson.

Check back at season's end to see how they compared to Mills' performance at that time.

As for the All-American third team, Mills finds himself in the company of BYU center Bruce Mitchell, Louisiana offensive guard Patrick Kutas, SMU offensive tackle PJ Williams and Iowa offensive tckle Trevor Lauck. For that matter, his third-team quarterback is Arch Manning of Texas.

Again, come back at season's end to see if this third team could hold on Mills or that he elevated in his regard in a significant manner.

As the outside analysts put all of the pieces together in Seattle, the Huskies carry a lot of early mystique because they're relying on so many young players to challenge the top hierarchy of the Big Ten this season, Mills included.

Because of geographical location, accolades and such, just like an Amazon truck delivery, always take a little longer to reach the doorstep.

Mills comes in an interesting package.

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Dan Raley
DAN RALEY

Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.

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