Pitt Jumps Into Race for Elite 2025 4-Star Florida Wide Receiver

It will be a tall task to land Cortez Mills, but Kade Bell and Pitt have jumped into the mix.

Mills — a 6-foot-2, 170-pound four-star wide receiver from Homestead in Homestead, Fla. — picked up a Pitt offer from Bell over the phone Tuesday.

Pitt football recruiting coverage sponsored by

RM LAW, P.C. is a boutique litigation law firm with a national practice dedicated to protecting shareholders’ interests and promoting improved corporate governance practices.

The Panthers joined the likes of Arizona, Auburn, Boston College, Clemson, Colorado, Florida, Florida State, Georgia, Illinois, Louisville, Miami, LSU, Michigan, Penn State, South Carolina, Syracuse, Texas A&M, UCF, Utah and West Virginia.

#AGTG🙏 University Of Pittsburgh Offered ! @larryblustein @TomLoy247 @ChadSimmons_ @TheCribSouthFLA @adamgorney @Kb1Raw @CoachPartridge pic.twitter.com/Mik7TlI7Qt

— Cortez Mills (@whycover3) January 17, 2024

Mills heard from Bell over the phone Tuesday, which came about after exchanging some texts back and forth of late, and it was the first real communication Mills has had with Pitt.

As a kid from Florida, Mills was not too familiar with Pitt or Pittsburgh before hearing from the Panthers’ coaching staff, but he’s learned more about the program since picking up the offer.

Mills has seen the former Pitt players in the NFL, and he said he felt like Pitt would be a place that could develop him to that level.

He’s obviously not visited Pittsburgh, and there’s no current plan to do so, not at this point in the relationship. But he does plan to make it to all the schools that interest him, and there are quite a few.

Mills is the sort of prototypical wide receiver in college football, able to use his size and length to win contested catches, rack up yards after catch and change games with the football in his hands.

Mills was an elite playmaker as a junior at Homestead, racking up 53 receptions for 1,136 yards (21.4 yards per reception) and two touchdowns in 11 games recorded on MaxPreps.

247Sports rates Mills as the 128th-ranked recruit in the class (18th-ranked wide receiver and 18th-ranked recruit from Florida) while Rivals rates him as the 100th-ranked recruit in the class (17th-ranked wide receiver and 18th-ranked recruit from Florida).

Bell and the Pitt coaching staff will have their work cut out in trying to land Mills over a large group of contenders, and it will be paramount to land him an unofficial visit over the next few weeks — and again over the summer.

It appears that the likes of Clemson, Miami and LSU are the favorites for Mills’ services at this point in his recruitment.

Pitt has not landed a commitment from the class of 2025, but it’s only a matter of time now before that changes as the class of ’25 is entering the spotlight.

The Panthers are in the mix for four-star linebacker Dayshaun Burnett (Pittsburgh, Pa.), three-star athlete Emmanuel Taylor (Virginia Beach, Va.), three-star offensive lineman Raphael Greene (Cincinnati, Ohio), four-star wide receiver Jadyn Robinson (San Juan Capistrano, Cal.), three-star running back Jeffrey Overton Jr. (Woodbridge, Va.) and three-star edge rusher Sharlandiin Strange (Wyncote, Pa).