Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Miller runs with QB job for Wildcats
Owen Miller was at church camp, minding his own business when he got a call that would change the trajectory of his sophomore season.
It was Harding Academy Coach Neil Evans on the other end, calling to tell Miller that he would be the Wildcats’ starting quarterback in the fall.
Returning all-state quarterback Kade Smith had just left the Wildcats’ football team to focus on baseball — the sport he’s committed to play at the University of Arkansas — leaving open the starting spot for the three-time defending Class 3A champions.
Miller took the opportunity and ran with it. On the way to leading Harding Academy to the Class 4A state championship game, the sophomore passed for 3,677 yards, 38 touchdowns and 4 interceptions. He also set the state record for completion percentage in a season at 79.1%.
For his efforts, Miller is the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette’s All-Arkansas Preps Underclassman of the Year.
“It’s really tough to grasp the magnitude of what he just did,” Evans said. “Not just how successful the season was, but when you look at all the circumstances that surround him getting the job, the way you handle it, how young he is, the classification, how difficult our nonconference schedule was, it really is remarkable what he’s done. … I think it’s going to be one of those things where the more time goes on, the more beautiful that story is probably going to get.”
Miller was on the varsity roster as his older brother Andrew and the Wildcats won the school’s third straight Class 3A title in 2021, but he rarely played.
While he was the next in line when Smith left the team, he was anything but a sure thing in Evans’ mind.
“As it is with anybody new but especially at that position, you just got the unknown,” Evans said. “You don’t know. You think you know, you don’t know how guys are gonna prepare during the week. You don’t know how he’s gonna hold up physically. You don’t know how he’s gonna grasp everything mentally when it’s on his shoulders. You don’t know how he’s going to handle adversity.”
Whatever doubt Evans and his staff may have had about their new quarterback was washed away by the end of the Wildcats’ season-opener.
Harding Academy beat eventual 5A East champion Valley View on the road, 5135. Miller was stellar in his varsity start, completing 29 of 33 passes for 409 yards and 5 touchdowns.
“He played out of his mind,” Evans said. “And so I think after that, we knew we had something special.”
Miller and the Wildcats tore through the rest of non-conference competition, beating Camden Harmony Grove and Booneville by a combined 57 points and won the school’s first-ever Class 4A game 45-13 over Stuttgart.
The next week came the Wildcats’ biggest test of the regular season.
Any doubts Evans may have had over Miller’s playing ability were long gone by this point, but with each passing week Miller saw something for the first time. When Lonoke showed up with a defensive look the Wildcats had yet to see, they struggled and were behind at halftime.
Miller finished that game 13-of-17 passing for 137 yards and 2 touchdowns. It was the toughest game of his young career to that point, but he managed to help the Wildcats overcome the halftime deficit to win 31-21.
“I’m glad that happened compared to us,” Miller said. “… Having that adversity really helped us get to the state. If we didn’t have that game, I don’t know if we would have made it that far.”
The Wildcats finished their first regular season in 4A undefeated and claimed the 4A-2 conference title. They beat DeWitt, McGehee and Arkadelphia to advance to the state championship game but fell 64-39 to Malvern to finish 12-1 on the season.
Miller is the youngest of four brothers. His three older brothers, Easton, Isaac and Andrew, stuck close by to play at Harding University, and Miller said having them has been instrumental in his development as a player and person.
“This year, they’ve had a lot of confidence in me,” Miller said. “And they knew that I would do a good job. They had a little bit more faith in me because you know, I’m worried I might mess up or whatever, but they always just had faith in me.”