LINCOLN — Maurice Washington officially has more company in the Nebraska football backfield.
Dedrick Mills, the Garden City (Kansas) Community College star who committed to NU months ago but went silent during the December signing period, signed Monday evening with the Husker football team. He’ll join the team in the summer. The 5-foot-11, 215-pounder bulled his way to 1,358 yards and 19 touchdowns for the Broncbusters this fall and is expected to immediately add depth to a backfield that lost 1,000-yard rusher Devine Ozigbo to graduation.
Originally from Waycross, Georgia, Mills was not immediately available for comment, as his last known phone number had been disconnected. He did not respond to requests on social media, either. An NU spokesman confirmed Mills will arrive in the summer. It’ll be his second Power Five school.
His first, Georgia Tech, was a fit on the field — he rushed for 771 yards and 12 touchdowns as a true freshman — but not off of it. Just before the beginning of his sophomore season, he was kicked off the team for a third positive drug test, which triggered automatic dismissal. The school has since changed its rules. Mills transferred to Garden City and spent most of 2017 hurt.
In 2018, he returned to form. But he didn’t sign with NU in December. On the first day of the early signing period, he appeared in a Ware County (Georgia) courthouse on July charges of speeding and failing to appear in court. He’d turned himself in on those charges and received probation for them, according to a Ware County court official.
Ostensibly, he’s the sixth scholarship running back in NU’s room, but none of them — including Washington — has rushed for more yards at the Power Five level than Mills did in his one year at Georgia Tech. Along with Mills and Washington — who had 676 yards from scrimmage as a true freshman — NU has sophomore Jaylin Bradley, senior Wyatt Mazour and incoming true freshmen Ronald Thompkins and Rahmir Johnson.
The Huskers now have 24 signees in their 2019 recruiting class. They also added graduate transfer Darrion Daniels at defensive tackle. Nebraska can likely add 30 players in this cycle.
