Millines Down to Three

American Heritage-Delray star Darius Millines gave a commitment to the West Virginia Mountaineers back in September, but he still left the door slightly cracked that he could head elsewhere. After a few visits in the month of January, it looks like Millines has thrown the door wide open, but the Mountaineers are still in the thick of it.

“Just basically Marshall, West Virginia, and Illinois,” said Millines of the three schools he is deciding between. “(West Virginia Head) Coach (Bill) Stewart was down here I think yesterday. He was just talking about academic stuff and everything. He touched base on football, he wants me to play inside, outside receiver also.”

The 6-foot-1, 185-pound Millines is fresh off a visit to the University of Illinois, one that made mainly to do former FAU and current Illini quarterback coach, Jeff Brohm, and his ties to Palm Beach County according to Millines.

“It was real good,” said Millines of his trip to Champaign, Illinois. “They are not promising me anything, and not pressuring me into anything, but they are just letting me know how they would use me in their offense. They were telling me if I want to play, I have to come in and work hard, not get grand and think I’m just going to start. They were telling me they want to use me on kick return, inside and outside receiver, and do a little wildcat.”

The third school fighting for Millines, Marshall, had just placed a call prior to this interview to catch up with the talented athlete.

“I just talked to their receiver coach (Zach Smith)… He just wanted to touch base and see how everything was.”

Millines went though most of the year quietly committed to West Virginia before January, and then the visits to Marshall and Illinois happened, so why the change of heart this late in the game?

“I felt comfortable there (WVU) at first and then I started thinking I want to take my visits to make sure it was right. I had been listening to Dominique Battle (AH-Delray/Cincinnati) and he was telling me to take my visits, so I took two more. Now it’s kind of like, I liked all three of them.

“Now I’m deciding on where I think I should go. I’ve been praying on it, me and my family have been praying on it so I can see where I fit in.”

No matter where Millines signs come February 3, fans in the state of Florida will remember his 4-touchdown performance inside the Citrus Bowl back in December for some time to come. The feat carried the Stallions to their second state title in three years.

“I knew going into it, I reached my goal, but I hadn’t finished my goal,” said Millines on reaching the 1A state title game. “We were getting ready to leave at 4:30, I called a team meeting at 4:20. . . I told them this is what we have been working hard on since January, now do you want to say ‘dang we could have done that or we could have done this, and we should have won. Or do you want to say yes we won, we are the best team in class 1A?’ They acted like they wanted to be state champions. We played well.”