Donovan McMillon’s decision to return home and play for Pitt was one guided by all the right reasons. The former four-star recruit from Peters Township wanted to play in a secondary known for producing NFL players and more importantly he just wants to win. McMillon feels he can accomplish both things at Pitt.

McMillon was a big-time recruit in the class of 2021. He had grabbed over 50 scholarship offers, but during that process he did not really consider Pitt all that much, despite the Panthers being his first offer.

McMillon said he just felt like he had to get away for college, and after two years in Gainesville, he feels he has matured from that experience.

“I just wanted the experience and I feel like I got that experience and now I’m grown from that and now I get the opportunity to come back,” McMillon told reporters on Wednesday.

The experience for McMillon helped shaped him on a personal level. He appeared in 25 games for the Florida Gators over the last two seasons and recorded 30 tackles. In those two seasons in the SEC, however, Florida posted a 12-13 record.

The losing got to him.

In his final two years at Peters Township, his teams posted a 20-3 combined record. As a wrestler in high school, he won over 100 matches. He had a winning background and during his time in Gainesville, Pitt had its best stretch in recent memory after capturing 20 wins, back-to-back top 25 finishes, and an ACC Championship in 2021.

“My whole life I worked my butt off just to be a champion in what I do or at least try to be,” McMillon explained. “Having the experience of losing the past few years just didn’t really sit well in my stomach and I just felt like Pitt is on the up rise. They just keep going and inching up and I think we have the opportunity to go win and go do really big things and win an ACC Championship for sure.”

Just like in high school, McMillon had plenty of opportunities in his second recruitment as well. After entering the transfer portal he collected offers from the likes of Kansas State, Miami, Nebraska, Kansas, Boston College, Mississippi State, West Virginia, Virginia Tech, and Minnesota.

“I considered a lot of schools to be honest with you,” McMillon said of his most recent recruitment. “I was thinking West Coast for a little bit, I was thinking more local schools as well, but at first I had no idea where I wanted to go and it felt like the pieces just fell together. Coach Sanders was the first coach out of anyone to hit me up.”

Like the did in high school, Pitt was the first school to come calling. After experiencing college football for a couple of years, McMillon gave the hometown school more of a look the second time around. He noticed Pitt has had six defensive backs drafted under Narduzzi, and appreciated Pitt’s straightforward approach.

“I know when I was talking to Coach Sanders and Coach Collins, they have just consistently put in DBs into the NFL,” he explained. “They are having high production in the league right now and that just really excited me seeing that happen, so I’m just trying to be the next one to do that.”

McMillon will have an opportunity right away to make that happen. Pitt is losing both starting safeties from the 2022 team with Erick Hallett and Brandon Hill both pursuing NFL opportunities. McMillon said he will likely play the boundary safety at first, but expects to play all over the place once he gets going in this system.

“I see myself as a hybrid safety, I can play it all,” McMillon said. “I can be in the post, I can play man coverage, I can come down to the box and tackle.”