Southern Miss breakout star uses tragic loss as motivation on the football field
Ty Mims was once too athletic for his own good.
That’s probably what his former high school football coach thought as he watched Mims shed multiple defenders before taking to the air to evade another on his way into the end zone.
There’s just one problem: you can’t hurdle in Alabama. The penalty brought the play back and Mims’ Baldwin County offense failed to score again on the drive.
“I don’t think he did it intentionally to showboat, that was just kind of his natural athleticism taking over,” said Elberta coach Nathan McDaniel, who was Mims’ coach at the time in Bay Minette. “You’re a little upset about not getting the score, but it’s also one of those things where you go ‘holy cow, this kid is going to be special.’”
By Mims’ estimation, he did it five times in high school. Never truly intentional, there was just a body in between him and the white plane. It’s just who he is, electric.
Fans first caught a glimpse of the Southern Miss wide out’s skill-set in his debut against Northwestern State, but it was against Arkansas State where the 5-foot-9 star-in-the-making had his breakout day filling in for the injured Jakarius Caston.
Mims caught five passes for 81 yards and wowed the home crowd with his 0-to-60 speed and cat-like elusiveness. Much of his downfield damage came after the ball had reached his hands.
“When Caston went down, I was like ‘it’s my time,’” Mims said. He’s made the most of his first campaign, hauling in 23 passes for 355 yards through six games.
The true freshman had put himself in this position through his work when the cameras weren’t around.
“The coaches were proud of me from the start because I came in and put in a lot of work,” Mims said. “Being first to run 110’s, in the weight room doing good, I was really just being patient. Some freshmen play, some don’t. I’m just at practice doing well, showing my skills off, I’m getting ‘oohs and aahs.’ It started from there.”
Mims has a drive that draws the praise of coaches past and present, but where exactly does it come from? You can trace it back to a night that altered Mims’ life forever.
At around 9 p.m. on July 20, 2021, Robert “R.J.” Mims-Daniels was gunned down in front of his grandmother’s house. He was 22, and he was Mim’s brother.
R.J. played for Baldwin County and for McDaniel ahead of Mims and was even regarded by some as the more athletic one of the two. Even Mims says R.J. was faster than he was.
And if there’s any place that provides Mims more comfort than the golden-splashed end zones of M.M. Roberts Stadium, it’s in the memories of R.J.
“It motivates me, he just wanted to come to a college game,” Mims said. “And I just think about seeing him in the stands.”
Mims recalls backyard battles between the two as the catalyst for the creation of the athlete fans in Hattiesburg see today.
“He was older than me so he would try to bully me, but he was making me get better at the same time,” Mims said. “He just wanted me to get better, to be the best version of me. I learned to never take the game for granted. He would tell me to play every game like it’s your last. I still read the messages.”
Mims is mature well beyond his age and always has been, according to McDaniel. “He was mature beyond his years. He was one of those freshmen that could handle playing on Friday nights.”
A lot of that can be attributed to R.J., who played corner for the Tigers and who pushed Mims on and off the field.
The result you see in The Rock today is a lightning quick, energetic pass-catcher who has the ability to spin defenders toward his escaping heels in the blink of an eye.
“There’s not a lot of people on the field that are the same speed as me,” Mims said. “I’m just using that to do what I do.”
Mims is as friendly as anyone you’ll meet from Lower Alabama, but be sure to watch your head if you stumble into his path. Much like his career at USM, he just might take off.
This story was originally published November 17, 2022 at 1:42 PM.
