Inside The Huskies

Colorado O-Line Recruit Gets Hard Sell From Mills

Reis Russell sets official visit for Washington in June.
Dan Raley|
Reis Russell and UW line coach Michael Switzer share a recruiting moment.
Reis Russell and UW line coach Michael Switzer share a recruiting moment. | UW

How do you say no to John Mills?

Early on Friday, 4-star offensive line recruit Reis Russell from Colorado posted on social media he will take his official visit to the University of Washington on June 19-21.

A few hours later, this player targeted for several months now by the UW drew a customized response.

"Come home Reis."

That directive was sent to him by none other than John Mills, the UW's showcase offensive guard who's coming off a freshman season in which he started 11 games, nine at left guard and pair at right tacle.

Come home Reis, he said.

Again, let that sink in as to who said it.

Chances are when Russell arrives in Seattle -- and he's been to the city countless times for prior recruiting engagements -- Mills will be assigned to him to influence his college decision and treat him to the Metropolitan Grill or maybe Dick's Drive-In, or both.

Either way, the 6-foot-3, 290-pound kid from Highlands Ranch, Colorado, will get the hard sell from the Huskies and no doubt Mills, who has built a reputation for being one of the nation's better college blockers after just a season at that level.

Should Russell choose the Huskies, he'll have the chance to line up next to Mills for one or two seasons, depending on when the older guy will want to pull the trigger on his NFL pursuits.

Yet the competition, understandably so, has much more intense for Russell, with Georgia making the Coloradoan a new point of emphasis. Russell also counts LSU, Miami, Nebraska, North Carolina, Oregon, Penn State, Tennessee, Texas A&M and USC among his 32 scholarship offers.

The big kid ranks as the No. 3 interior offensive lineman, according to rivals, yet lists himself as able to play center, guard and tackle.

Again, the Huskies were one of the first schools to join in the pursuit of Russell, who's from Valor Christian High School, and rightfully so. They pulled offensive tackle Roger Rosengarten, now with the Baltimore Ravens, out of this same school six years ago.

The good news for Russell is he has four months to figure out how he's going to handle the upcoming Husky sales pitch this summer, especially if Mills is involved.

It would be incredibly hard for this prospect to tell Mills he's not coming. The easy way out might be just to say yes.

Come home Reis, has to be echoing through his head.

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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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