Nebraska Football Signee Analysis: Wide Receiver Cortez Mills

One of the first priority targets of the 2025 recruiting class for this Nebraska football staff was Cortez Mills. Matt Rhule was officially hired at Nebraska on Nov. 26, 2022, with Mills receiving his offer three weeks later on Dec. 16.

Mills was coming off a sophomore season where he finished with over 900 yards receiving and over 10 touchdowns while helping to lead Homestead (Fla.) High School to a state championship game appearance.

His head coach, Phil Simpson, would be hired by Matt Rhule and spend the 2023 season on staff as a defensive quality control coach. Simpson put Mills on Nebraska’s radar and spent the next year prioritizing him along with former assistant Garret McGuire. He forged such a strong relationship between the two sides that even after he left to be a senior defensive analyst at Florida State, the Huskers remained among his leaders.

Mills would go on to have a monster junior season, catching 79 passes for 1,640 yards and setting a Miami-Dade County record with 18 touchdowns. Once again Homestead would play for a state championship and Mills would be named a Miami Herald All-Dade 4M-3M selection. He was named to the On3 High School Football Preseason All-America Team ahead of his senior season.

Outside of five-star Texas athlete Michael Terry III, who ultimately signed with the in-state Longhorns, Cortez Mills was the top wide receiver on Nebraska’s board for almost two years.

Mills has been one of South Florida’s most talked-about players since he started as a freshman and recorded 31 catches for 726 yards and five touchdowns. He received his first offer that spring and finished with over 30 Power Four tenders.

Along with being a standout on the 7-on-7 scene traveling across the country competing in tournaments, Mills was one of the top performers on the camp circuit as well. He was the first 2025 receiver that Clemson offered after a dominant showing at the Dabo Swinney Camp in June 2023.

This past March, with dozens of blue-chip prospects from the 2025, 2026 and 2027 classes on hand and over 100 of the top prospects in the Sunshine State in attendance, Mills was named one of the best overall participants at the Under Armour Next Camp series held in Miami, winning the MVP award from On3.

He followed that up by participating in the prestigious invite-only Rivals Five-Star camp held at the Jacksonville Jaguars’ facility June 25-26. With only 104 total players selected across the 2025, 2026 and 2027 classes, Mills was named one of the top wide receivers at the conclusion of the marquee event by Rivals staff members who were on hand to watch.

Mills balanced his offseason camp schedule with several spring and summer visits. After coming to Lincoln for Nebraska’s junior day on Jan. 20, Mills took unofficial visits to LSU, Auburn, Missouri, Florida, Penn State, Oklahoma and Clemson.

Coming out of his visit to Nebraska and heading into those spring visits, Miami was considered his leader with the Huskers nipping at the Hurricanes’ heels. Mills would ultimately pare down his finalists and take official visits to his top five.

After planning on visiting Lincoln June 14, Mills made a last-minute switch and decided to come to Lincoln for the April 26-28 weekend surrounding the Red-White game. He met quarterback TJ Lateef that weekend and the two hit it off, staying in contact throughout their recruitments.

Mills would also take visits to Clemson (May 31), Florida (June 7), Oklahoma (June 14) and LSU (June 21) after canceling a previously planned visit to Miami. The Clemson visit was a momentum-changer, and coming out of it, the Tigers emerged as his new leader. Various recruiting sites began flipping their predictions from Miami to Clemson, but there was another twist coming in his recruitment.

Oklahoma was a relative late comer in Mills’ recruitment, having offered in late January. He took his first ever visit to Oklahoma in March and returned to Norman in April for the Sooners’ spring game. From that point on, Oklahoma became a primary presence in his recruitment.

It culminated in his June official visit where the Sooners made a phenomenal impression. Mills actually silently committed to Oklahoma before leaving but was in Baton Rouge the next weekend to visit LSU, who had made a late surge of their own.

On June 26, Mills announced a final five of Clemson, Florida, LSU, Nebraska and Oklahoma and gave a July 1 commitment date, which is when he publicly committed to the Sooners over runner-up Clemson.

Nebraska never stopped recruiting Mills, however, and that diligence helped get him back on campus for the Huskers’ Sept. 7 game against Colorado — a game Mills had talked about wanting to attend since his junior day visit in January.

It has been reported Oklahoma has a strict no-visit policy elsewhere for its commits — something Brent Venables took from his time at Clemson under Dabo Swinney. Although it wouldn’t affect Mills since he told coaches at the time of his commitment he planned to take visits elsewhere during the season, the public nature of the visit was cause for concern and Venables tried to get Mills to cancel.

There weren’t immediate concerns from Oklahoma coaches coming out of that visit, however. In fact, on Sept. 16, Mills seemed to reaffirm his commitment with a tweet indicating he was “locked in” with Oklahoma, via a padlock emoji above a picture of him with the entire Sooner staff.

Although Nebraska continued to push hard, the Sooners remained confident they’d keep Mills in the fold. Things got interesting, though, when Venables fired offensive coordinator Seth Littrell on Oct. 20, and then a month later on Nov. 21, class QB Kevin Sperry flipped and ultimately signed with Florida State.

Nebraska sent multiple coaches to Florida during their final bye week in November prior to the USC game to make the Huskers’ final case in-person.

At that point, Clemson, Miami, Auburn, Missouri, Colorado, Florida State and Penn State had also reopened lines of communication to try and flip Mills.

None of them could gain ground on the Huskers, who had stayed consistent throughout his recruitment. Mills, who has a fair amount of friends and South Beach acquaintances on the Husker roster, was enamored by playing with Dylan Raiola and the upside the offense had with Dana Holgorsen joining the staff as its coordinator.

Mills publicly flipped his commitment from Oklahoma to Nebraska and signed with the Huskers on early signing day, Dec. 4, although he had informed coaches of his intentions about two weeks prior.

He missed most of his senior season due to an injury, not playing until the final five games of the season, but he still managed to finish with 466 yards and six touchdowns.

His final year of high school culminated with playing in the Navy All-America Bowl. At the event, the 6-foot, 175-pound Mills was measured having 33-inch arms and an astounding 79-inch wingspan to go with humungous 10-inch hands. He was mentioned by multiple recruiting outlets for having a strong three days of practice leading up to the all-star game.

There was always an expectation during his recruitment that Mills would see the field immediately. Even with several additions to the room via the transfer portal, that trajectory hasn’t changed.

Mills is a smooth, skilled route runner who offers inside-outside versatility as someone who can work all three levels and is capable of working the entire route tree. He uses suddenness, burst and quick feet to gain separation and break defenders off at the route stem against man coverage and is adept at finding the soft spot in zones.

He has strong hands and tremendous ball skills and might play the ball in the air better than anyone in this cycle. He attacks the ball and rarely loses a 50/50 battle while routinely catching contested balls in traffic.

Mills is a consensus four-star recruit and is ranked as the No. 87 (Rivals), No. 122 (ESPN), No. 170 (On3) and No. 210 (247Sports) player in the class. He enrolled early and is taking part in winter conditioning. He will head into spring ball trying to establish himself as an early rotational piece at wide receiver with the potential to increase his workload.

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