Oxford, AL – More than a year after committing, Oxford’s record-setting Mims holds true to form and signs to play under Brohm at Louisville.
By: Joe Medley
What Oxford High School had in three seasons with Mason Mims as its starting quarterback showed on an overhead screen during Wednesday’s ceremony to celebrate his signing with the University of Louisville.
The deeply researched list showed where Mims’ career numbers stood in Alabama Class 6A football history and in Alabama High School Athletic Association history overall.
What Louisville and its quarterback doctor coach Jeff Brohm will get in Mims came across in Oxford coach Sam Adams’ choked-back emotions on the first day of the early football signing period.
“In a day where, today, on signing day, the guys who seem to get the most attention are the flip guys,” Adams said. “The whole idea of loyalty gets lost in this whole thing along the way.
“One of the things I’m most proud of … is the way he’s handled this thing.”
Let the record reflect that Mason Mims committed to Louisville on Nov. 24, 2023.
He signed with Louisville on Dec. 4, 2024.
Schools tried to flip Mims, he said. He didn’t them specifically, except to say they were SEC schools.
Flip he did not.
The guy who threw at least one touchdown pass in 36 of his 37 Oxford starts, with the one miss coming in a 2022 game with Center Point that saw him miss the second half with a separated shoulder, Mims showed consistency.
He showed loyalty.
After he committed, he used his social media account to promote his future school and celebrated other players who committed to Louisville.
And wouldn’t you know it? Louisville happened to be that first big-time program to come through with an offer.
It started with a campus visit in October of 2023.
“The first time I went up there was a month before” he announced his commitment, he said. “They didn’t offer me until a couple of weeks later. They came down to watch us practice, and they offered me that same night. Then I went up there for the Kentucky game, and it felt like home up there.
“They’ve been loyal to me, so I’ve been loyal to them. They haven’t been after any other quarterbacks, so it just felt like home.”
And those couple of SEC schools that came calling later? Well, there was room for pragmatism in all of this loyalty story.
“Coach Brohm and them, they develop quarterbacks in the NFL,” Mims said. “They probably have one of the best quarterback rooms in the country, so you can’t turn that down.”
Brohm and his staff clearly see something in a quarterback that recruiting services list as a three-star product.
He has the measurables, at 6-foot-3 and 210 Pounds. He has the arm to make all of the throws.
Maybe it’s the kind of system he ran in high school, under Adams.
“The way we play requires our quarterbacks to make a decision on every single snap of the game,” Adams said. “Even when we’re running the ball, it’s not just us calling a running play, and he catches the snap and hands it off.
“He has to make a decision on whether to hand ir or throw it, who to throw it to, and there’s a lot that goes into that. Really, once the game gets started, the whole idea of calling plays in the game, most of that goes to him. Once the ball is kicked off, he’s got the keys to the car.”
Brohm has been ready to hand Mims the keys for a while. Mims has signed to make his starter car his permanent car.
To those who know him best, that’s no surprise.
“He found what he feels like, and I feel like is a great fit for him in a whole bunch of ways,” Adams said. “There have been other schools that have tried to come in and get him to do the flip kind of deal, and that’s just not who he is.”
Photo gallery by Joe Medley
