Notre Dame Football: Irish land dominant 2020 defensive end

On Monday, Notre Dame football landed Rylie Mills, a 2020 defensive end out of Illinois, adding yet another asset to the 2020 recruiting class.

Rylie Mills will be a fun player for Notre Dame football fans to watch in the coming years. Mills is a player that has been extremely high on Notre Dame for quite awhile, taking multiple visits after he was offered in February of last year. It was only a matter of time before he made it official and announced he wanted to play for Notre Dame, even with Wisconsin and Ohio State being his other top schools.

Adding to the appeal, Mills wants to major in business and there’s no better place for him to do that than Notre Dame’s top-ranked business school, the Mendoza College of Business. For him, the athletics and education were just unmatched.

At the moment, Mills holds 28 offers from the likes of Alabama, Ohio State, Clemson, Florida and many other top programs throughout the nation.

What will Mills bring to South Bend?

The 6’5,” 280-pound defensive end is extremely physical. He has outstanding strength, especially in his lower body, for a senior in high school and because of that he’s above and beyond his competition in terms of his physical tools. He completely dominates each opponent he goes up against with his strength alone.

But don’t get me wrong, though, he has athleticism that you wouldn’t expect from someone of his size and strength. He moves very well and has nice foot work to complement his physicality. Once he’s able to get around Matt Balis in the weight room and under Mike Elston’s coaching, there’s really nothing stopping Mills from being a dominate force in blue and gold for years to come.

With Mills committing to the Irish there are now 9 verbal commitments in Notre Dame’s 2020 class. Four of those are on the defensive side of the ball, while five are on offense.

Another nugget to add from Mills’ commitment is this could really catapult and swing momentum in favor of the Irish with another major target along the defensive line in Braiden McGregor, who’s very good friends with Mills. I’m pretty certain the staff is absolutely hoping that’ll help quite a bit, but for now, adding Mills to this class is absolutely huge, there’s no doubt about it. Defensive line coach Mike Elston continues to dominate on the recruiting trail and I don’t see it stopping anytime soon.