Mills, the son of a pastor in the Houston-area community of Aldine, Texas, grew up in a parsonage attached to the church where his father preached.
[1] While Mills earned a partial scholarship to NAIA school Southern Wesleyan University, he told Thamel that he could remember suiting up for only one game, in 1990–91.
That fall, he dove for a loose ball in practice and suffered a broken vertebra in his lower back when it hit a concrete step.
[1] Mills remained head coach at Fort Bend Baptist until 2002, when he became video coordinator at Rice under Willis Wilson.
[1] In 2003, Mills joined Scott Drew's staff at Baylor, where he stayed for 14 years, and was part of seven NCAA appearances by the Bears.
[3] Mills was initially a director of operations, becoming a full assistant in 2009 when Matthew Driscoll left to become head coach at North Florida.
On April 28, 2017, Mills was named the head coach at Oral Roberts, replacing Scott Sutton.
According to Thamel, "Scott Drew would have him deliver lines on the team bus and then play the scenes to test his accuracy."
Drew told Thamel, "Literally, you can pause it at any time in the movie and he’ll give you the next 10 lines in a row.