Waterford duo was born to run
Prior to the 2019 prep football season, the Journal Sentinel will reveal the Supreme 17, a look at the top players in the area to watch. Each day between the first day of practice on Aug. 6 to the first day of games on Aug. 22, one player will be revealed.
The similarities between Waterford's Tanner Keller and Dominic Miller are stunning.
Playing together since the eighth grade, they stand no more than one inch apart and weigh in within five pounds of one another.
Both are senior running backs that possess a combination of speed and solid vision with a hint of power.
They were the only two backs named first team all-conference in the Southern Lakes Conference in 2018.
And together, they form the state's only duo of returning 1,000-yard rushers.
“They're so similar that it's hard to find any major differences,” Waterford head coach Adam Bakken said. “You can call up any play for either of them and they can execute it.”
That's often exactly what the Wolverines do.
From its main offensive look of a double-tight end, double-wing set, Waterford doesn't have the most expansive playbooks but has the multiplicity of running any of its plays for either of its standout ballcarriers.
“We literally run the exact same plays each way on the field,” Bakken said. “Tanner plays our two back and Dom plays the four back. So they get the exact same play call for either one of them, and that allows us to go whatever direction we want.”
Whether that direction is left or right, it generally involves a substantial advance forward.
On 261 rushing attempts last year, Keller and Miller combined to average 10.7 yards per carry. Keller led the charge with 163 attempts for 1,772 yards and 26 scores, while Miller toted the ball 98 times for 1,012 yards and 16 touchdowns.
The only returning duo in the state to combine for more rushing yards in 2018 is Racine Lutheran's Tyler Tenner and Jaylen Houston, thanks in large part to Tenner's 2,275 yards and the team playing three more games than Waterford.
“We definitely could top that (this year),” Miller said. “We had a lot of great people on our offensive line last year, a very good line, but I definitely feel like we could do it again and do even better.”
Keller was named the Southern Lakes Conference offensive player of the year for the 10-2 Wolverines, but all accounts from Waterford practices indicate that Miller could challenge him for the award this season after taking major strides entering their senior seasons.
Once again, the carries will be split this fall – perhaps even more evenly than in 2018.
That isn't an issue for either, who see the timeshare as a way to be able to put a maximum effort into each run.
“I like it because you can't key on one person,” Keller said. “Once Dom starts carrying the ball and doing well, then we'll go to me. And then if I have a good run, they have to deal with two of us. It just switches off.”
In no instance was the danger the pair presents to defenses more apparent than against Milwaukee Reagan in Level 1 of the Division 2 playoffs.
Miller ran the ball eight times for 105 yards and two touchdowns, while Keller delivered “by far” the best game of his career by scoring all four times that he touched the ball on runs of 44, 57, 61 and 85 yards.
“That was pretty awesome,” Keller said. “We felt like we were going to score every time we got the ball.”
2019, however, will present a fresh restart for Waterford.
Gone are four starting offensive lineman, all of who made either first or second team all-conference last year. Second-team all-conference quarterback Joe Schauer also graduated. It all means that the Wolverines will have to look to find more and more ways to get its running backs involved offensively.
It's a good thing they have two pretty talented ones.
“They're not just good running backs,” Bakken said. “They catch the ball well out of the backfield, they block well, so they're really complete running backs. They're one of the best one-two combos of running backs not only that I've coached, but that I've ever seen.”