MILLER'S BACK, FULFILLING PROMISE AFTER INJURY

By Rich Myhre

By Washington Huskies

September 27^th, 2018

Before last season, senior cornerback Jordan Miller had never suffered a significant football injury. In fact, since arriving at the University of Washington in the summer of 2015, he had yet to miss a game or even one team practice.

All that changed on Oct. 14, 2017.

In the late seconds of a game at Arizona State University – indeed, it was the final play from scrimmage before three successive kneel-downs secured a 13-7 Sun Devils victory – Miller was pursuing an ASU tight end along the sideline after a reception. At the last instant, Washington safety Taylor Rapp came diving in from the side, taking out both the receiver and Miller in one low, rolling tackle.

The Arizona State player bounced up, but Miller remained down. The impact had left him with a dislocated ankle and broken fibula, injuries that would sideline him for the rest of the 2017 season.

As he was taken off the field on a motorized cart, “I didn’t feel hurt,” Miller said. “I was thinking more about the game. To be honest, I was only thinking, ‘We lost.’”

Believing that his ankle was just dislocated and not broken, “I thought, ‘Oh, they’ll pop it back in and I’ll be good,’” he said.

MILLER'S BACK, FULFILLING PROMISE AFTER INJURY

It was not until later in the subdued UW locker room that the extent of his injury became clear. Not only was his season over, he would also need corrective surgery and then months of arduous rehabilitation. It was a daunting prognosis, but Miller never wavered. In postgame conversations with both head coach Chris Petersen and defensive backs coach Jimmy Lake, Miller made it clear that his UW story was far from finished.

“We were all so devastated when that happened at Arizona State,” recalled Lake, who is now also Washington’s defensive coordinator. “I remember the end of the game when everybody was obviously down because we’d lost, and my first thing was to go check on Jordan in the locker room. He was with the trainers and doctors, and he looked at me dead in my eyes and said, ‘Coach, I’m going to be back.’”

True to his word, Miller spent the ensuing months persevering through long, tedious hours of rehab. Following surgery, which took place six days after the game, he began with upper-body workouts. He wore a leg cast for two months and a walking boot for another two months, and as his mobility improved he added lower-body exercises.

Things were looking up in March as the Huskies prepared for spring practices. Miller had begun running again, but suffered another setback. That meant more rehab which continued through the summer. Miller says he was not 100 percent again until the start of training camp in August.

But now a new season is underway and he is back as a starting cornerback in the UW secondary. Paired with redshirt sophomore Byron Murphy, they form what is undoubtedly one of the top cornerback tandems in the Pacific-12 Conference, if not all of college football.

Overcoming an injury is never an easy process, of course, and that was certainly Miller’s experience. The initial injury and the subsequent rehab were difficult and painful, and time seemed to pass slowly. Indeed, 10 months is a long time on anyone’s calendar, and that was the interval from the ASU game until Miller could actually play again.

“It was hard, definitely, but it’s just something you have to adjust to,” he said. “You have to learn how to be active on the team without really being able to physically be out there in the field.”

Still, an injured player can sometimes feel “like an outsider,” Miller admitted. “I feel like everybody when they first get hurt feels (that way). No one else really knows what you’re going through. But we had other guys who got hurt around the same time as me, so I got real close with those guys. Guys like (wide receiver) Quinton Pounds, (linebacker) Brandon Wellington and (offensive tackle) Trey Adams.

“I’m also a pretty positive guy,” he added. “I’m a glass-half-full type of guy. I think everything happens for a reason, and because this happened I’ve become a better player and a better person.”

“The way he attacked his rehab was inspiring to all of us,” Lake said. “It was definitely inspiring to me. He had a couple of setbacks here and there, but he came out and had a great training camp (in August). And then to perform the way he has in these first (few) games, I couldn’t be more proud of him.”

Miller came to Washington from the scenic southern California city of Oceanside, midway between Los Angeles and San Diego, which is likewise the boyhood home of UW tight end coach Jordan Paopao. At Oceanside High School, Miller was a backup player until his senior season in 2014, in part because he was still developing physically and also because he was a year behind twins Alijah and Mikah Holder in the team’s defensive secondary. Alijah Holder is currently a senior cornerback at Stanford University, while Mikah Holder completed his eligibility as a wide receiver at San Diego State University last season.

Given Miller’s lack of playing time as a high school underclassman, “he never got a lot of tape” to send out to college recruiters, Lake said. But Washington co-defensive coordinator Pete Kwiatkowski was recruiting that area of southern California at the time, “and he was the first one who saw him. He told me, ‘Jimmy, I think you’re going to like this kid.’

“So I went and watched him practice. I saw this skinny kid who had a gash over his eye from competing in a 7-on-7 tournament a couple of weeks before, and he was out there jumping around, knocking balls down and (being) athletic as all get-out. As soon as we saw him and evaluated his tape, we offered him right on the spot.”

Rival schools, learning of the Washington offer, soon started showing up to get a look at Miller, too. In time there were other scholarship offers, “but Jordan was always about (the Huskies),” Lake said. “He committed to us and eventually signed with us.”

During the recruiting process, Miller said, he was drawn to Washington primarily because of “the coaches. It just seemed that they cared more about the player as a person. I just felt it was the best bet for me being molded into the player I wanted to be, but also being molded into the person I wanted to be.”

Miller was his current height of 6 feet, 1 inch when he arrived at Washington, but he only weighed about 160 pounds. It was clear to everyone, including Miller himself, that he needed to gain both size and strength.

In terms of top athleticism, though, that much was evident right from the start. “He had this tremendous skill,” Lake said. “He was fast, explosive and he could jump.”

Working with the UW strength and conditioning staff, Miller began putting on weight. Though he still has a lean frame, he has since grown to about 185 pounds.

He is, Lake went on, “just a tremendous, highly competitive young man. I’m so proud of him for how disciplined he’s been in his (development). He’s really made himself into an elite college football player.”

Playing behind future National Football League cornerbacks Sidney Jones and Kevin King for his first two seasons, Miller saw action in every UW game, albeit as a backup while also playing on special teams. He moved into a starting role in 2017 and was playing at a high level before getting injured at ASU in the team’s seventh game.

As a senior, and with aspirations of playing professional someday, Miller would like to make his final season special. But that approach is really no different from his mindset when he first came to Washington.

“I want to do well in everything I do,” he explained. “Me being a senior, some people might see that as extra pressure, but it doesn’t really matter to me what year I am. I want to go out and perform no matter what.”

When he reflects on his Washington experience, what stands out to Miller is the unity. All the players and coaches “are a family,” he said. “People sometimes take that lightly when they say, ‘We’re a family, we’re brothers’ and all that. But we all have each other’s backs. We don’t have any locker room drama. We’re all good.