LOS ANGELES, Calif. – If you asked senior UW cornerback Jordan Miller in March where he would be on December 29, the last place he envisioned was at a podium answering questions before playing his last game in the Rose Bowl.
But that’s exactly where the fifth-year Husky defensive back found himself Saturday.
Just over 14 months since Miller suffered a devastating left leg injury on the final play against Arizona State last October, and after a few bumps in the road this season, he’s back and ready to ball one more time.
“I didn’t know where my body was going to take me at the beginning of the year,” Miller said, when asked if he feels any satisfaction ending his career in the Rose Bowl after everything he’s gone through.
“And I feel like even this season there’s been up’s and down’s, but it’s been a blessing at the same time. Everything happens for a reason. It’s exciting.”
Miller, a three-star standout defensive back from Oceanside, California, roughly 90 miles from Pasadena where UW will face Ohio State on Tuesday in the 105th Rose Bowl, is tied for second on the team with two interceptions in 2018.
Senior linebacker Ben Burr-Kirven, somewhat of an adopted member of the Huskies secondary at times, and junior safety Taylor Rapp are the other two with a pair of picks this season. They’re also two of several players that Miller doesn’t consider just teammates.
That, he said, is why the unit has been so successful over the last five seasons under head coach Chris Petersen.
“We’re more than just teammates. That’s the biggest thing about our team is we’re not just teammates, we’re brothers out there,” Miller said. “Off the field, on the field, we got each other’s back just so supportive of each other.”
Brothers, too, have a way of trying to one-up each other in an effort to bring out the best. The father figure who has cultivated a healthy, competitive atmosphere in the UW DB room, defensive coordinator Jimmy Lake, certainly is proud of his kids’ success.
Lake boasts an NFL-style defense predicated on shutting down any and all opposing quarterbacks, with an off the field culture devoted to turning 18-year-old high school football players into student-athletes, but first and foremost into men.
Whether using O.K.G. (Our Kind of Guy), or “Built For Life”, two principles that Petersen has built the program on since coming to UW in Dec. 2013, Miller is the epitome of what the head coach wants in his players.
“It’s like our competitiveness drives each other,” Miller said. “We all want to be the best in the room, best on the team, but we also want our brothers to be right there with us. So we’re helping each other out at the same time trying to improve ourselves. I feel like that’s just how you build the culture.”
The 6-foot-1, 181-pound corner is one of two seniors in the UW secondary, along with safety JoJo McIntosh. With prototypical size to be a successful DB at the next level Miller will certainly find his name on an NFL roster when the 2019 season comes around.
However, another fundamental part of Petersen’s program is that football is not plan A, and maybe not even plan B. Miller said he has neither when it comes to a specific goal in life whether football works out after the Rose Bowl ends Tuesday night or not.
Yet, in a way, what Miller said he wants to do in life is in fact a goal. Broad, yes, but something that is significant and brings more joy than any interception or shoulder-dropping hit.
“I just want to make a difference,” he said. “I don’t really have any personal, like personal goals that I know exactly what I want to do. But I really do want to make a difference in other people’s life. That’s one thing I’ve always been fond of is making other people smile, making other people happy.
“If I can do that I’ll be happy."
The true senior had his degree in hand before the 2018 season began. Miller will graduate with a degree in communications, but don’t expect him to become a sports reporter or ESPN analyst one day.
Rather Miller wants to learn about people.
“I want to talk to people. I want to know what people are thinking about,” he said, after noting his major. “I don’t think I’ll be a reporter at all. But I do think I want to make other people’s day better like I said. Be able to hear what people are thinking about.”
If playing alongside guys like Burr-Kirven, Rapp and Byron Murphy among others, has taught Miller anything over the past four years, it’s listening.
Burr-Kirven leads the team and the nation with 165 total tackles with an almost perfect split (85 individual and 80 assisted). Yet there have been games where the LB has become more of a free safety for the Huskies defense, which has meant swooping tackles away from some of his brothers.
“He’s always the first one to the ball. He’s stealing dudes tackles half the time,” Miller said, referring to the fellow seniors' on field abilities. “I feel like T-Rapp would have probably had 50 more tackles, but Ben’s over there five seconds before him. So he ain’t getting no opportunities.”
Rapp enters the Rose Bowl with 59 total tackles to couple with his two INT’s and team-high five sacks. So there might be some legitimacy to the notion that Burr-Kirven is a helpful, talented thief when it comes to getting credit for tackles.
It’s part of the good-natured ribbing and competition that fuels the Huskies defense. Especially when Burr-Kirven is the one complaining about not getting tackles.
“It’s funny, he tells me after ever single drive like ‘bro I’m not getting any tackles this game’,” Miller said. “I’m like ‘it’s okay you have like 100,000 already. It’s fine. Let someone else get one. It’s good.”
