Transfer OL Monroe Mills commits to TTU: "I love what McGuire is building"

The Texas Tech staff added some much needed offensive line help on Monday afternoon with the commitment of Oklahoma State transfer Monroe Mills.

Coming out of Tolton Catholic (MO) high school, Mills held offers from programs such as Illinois, Indiana, Iowa State, Kansas, Missouri, Rutgers and others before deciding on OSU.

The 6-foot-6, 300 pound tackle officially entered the portal on January 4th and had several programs from across the country recruiting him right away.

"So yeah, the portal is a crazy time. As soon as I entered a ton of schools hit me up, all the way from Big 12, SEC, all kinda schools. As soon as Texas Tech contacted me and offered me I had a feeling that's where I should go.

So I started talking to all the coaches, I just love what coach McGuire is building and it kinda felt like home so I stuck with them and I loved every second of it."

Mills, who played 19 offensive and five special teams snaps in his two seasons as a Cowboy, projects as a left tackle and plans to compete for the starting job under his new offensive line coach, Stephen Hamby.

"They see me as competing for the spot at left tackle. That's kinda the plan right now is to just compete and see how things shake out. That's what I'm hoping for."

Mills says his familiarity with the Texas Tech program from being in the Big 12 conference helped with his decision.

"Absolutely, yeah. I already know what the feel of Lubbock is, I know the fans are insane and awesome. When we went there and they threw the first tortilla I knew it was something special."

In Mills, the Red Raiders are getting an athletic and well-built tackle prospect whose best football is ahead of him.

"My length is a huge advantage that I have. I was blessed with super long arms and all that. I feel that I'm pretty mobile and I'm a hard worker. I'm gonna outwork everybody."

In high school, Mills played both sides of the ball and was named All-District, All-Conference and All-State as a junior. He also finished third in his class in wrestling.

Mills is a mid-year enrollee and will start classes at Texas Tech later this week.