UW Freshman John Mills Is Even Younger Than We Thought

The legend of John Mills continues to grow with each day. Maybe by the hour. Even more so when considering his years on the planet.

In the season opener against Colorado State, the 6-foot-6, 325-pound Mills became the first University of Washington freshman offensive lineman to start in nearly a decade, since Nick Harris.

Dropping into a stance at left guard, the San Francisco product quite possibly became the first Husky true freshman O-lineman to open his initial college football game. in Montlake.

And on Monday, at least for media purposes, somebody finally checked Mills' ID coming through the door and it was a double-take moment.

Someone asked starting offensive left tackle Carver Willis about playing "next to an 18- or 19-year-old" and got fact-checked right away.

"He's actually 17, which is even wilder," the Kansas State senior transfer said, sporting a full beard, facial growth probably not possible for Mills yet.

Seventeen?

He's old enough to get ice cream on University Avenue, but certainly not anywhere near close enough to have a legal cold one.

Consider Mills hasn't even had a driver's license for two years.

If this were schoolboy football, the much, much older Willis would be the high school senior lining up ... next to a seventh-grader.

Mills is the one who came in weighing north of 350 pounds and has since trimmed down to a svelte 325.

John Mills is a big man for such a young kid. | Dan Raley

What did they do, take away his high-sugar Lucky Charms breakfast cereal and make him eat nonfat yogurt?

With his Viking warrior look, with his long, stringy blond hair protruding out from under his helmet and down his back, the assumption was Mills likely was a wild man in the trenches. Trash talker at its finest. Just a nasty, nasty player by experience.

In this case, it's almost as if Mills just obtained that driver's license and hasn't really taken his big-engine car out on the Interstate to see how fast it will go. He's maybe revved it up a few times in the driveway.

"I think we all try to play physical," Willis said. "I think John and I try to play football the same way -- which is if you can get a guy on the ground, why wouldn't you?"

As for any rants, threats or insults about someone's mother coming from this overgrown kid, Mills actually has been polite and respectful. He's not yet become the second coming of the late John Matuszak (Google him), the prototype smack-talking monster charging out of a stance.

John Mills drops in a stance in the UW Spring Game. | Skylar Lin Visuals

"He's more of a celebrate with his own kind of guys," Willis said of Mills. "Any time he and I had a good play, we'd come back to the huddle and it was, 'Yeah, that was sick, that was a pretty good play.' "

John Mills might look like a man, but he's barely out of study hall. He's not old enough to enlist in the military. He still has the whole world ahead of him while that teammate on his left does not.

"It's very odd that I spend all my time with a 17-year-old," Willis said, "as a 23-year old."

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