Miller steps into starring WR role
This time last year, wide receiver Anthony Miller was a relative unknown to the casual Memphis football fan. He entered the 2015 season as a potential up-and-coming weapon, a local product slowed by injuries in his first two seasons and ready to step into a larger role.
This year, well, let’s just say things are a little bit different.
Coach Mike Norvell stopped short of declaring Miller the team’s No. 1 receiver Tuesday, explaining that every wide receiver on the field needs to operate as the top target in his offensive scheme. But through the first 10 practices of spring ball, there’s no doubt that Miller, a rising redshirt junior and former Christian Brothers star, has been the most explosive member of the Tigers’ group.
The team’s top returning receiver, Miller caught 47 passes for 694 yards and a team-best five touchdowns a year ago. Norvell said the staff will try to get the ball in his hands in a variety of ways in 2016.
“He’s a threat vertically down the field. He’s great in the quick and intermediate passing game. We’re going to hand it to him,” Norvell said. “The big thing that I think (is) he really plays like a running back, post-possession — breaking tackles, explosive runs. He’s had a tremendous spring.”
Norvell said Miller seemed
to be still mastering his assignments in the first two weeks of spring ball but has taken off over the past week. He also praised fellow wideouts Phil Mayhue and Roderick Proctor, who missed a handful of practices earlier this spring because of injury but have “had as good a three days as anybody at practice.”
Miller admitted that it took some time to grow accustomed to Norvell’s offense, and the speed of practice.
“We’re adjusting to the fast-paced tempo pretty well. It’s way faster than what we previously have been accustomed to,” he said. “What impresses me the most is how we’re adjusting to this system. It’s a new system. Coach Norvell has a different way of going about things. It’s kind of more structured, and the team is responding pretty well to that.”
Miller was one of Paxton Lynch’s favorite targets last season, his first full season at the collegiate level. He was particularly dangerous in big-play situations, shedding a tackler for an 82-yard touchdown catch-and-run against Cincinnati and hauling in a 45yard score at Tulsa, among others.
So what’s on tap for 2016?
“I’d like to improve on making more big plays, more downfield plays,” Miller said. “You’ll see me in the end zone way more than you did last season.”
EX-LB HARRIS JOINS ATHLETIC DEPT.
Former Memphis linebacker Charles Harris has been hired as an athletic development coordinator with the school’s Tiger Scholarship Fund, the school announced. His first day was Monday.
Harris, who played in 49 games and made 237 tackles during his career at Memphis, graduated magna cum laude with a degree in sport and leisure management in 2014. A Whitehaven High School product, he will help with fundraising for the Tiger Scholarship Fund, which helps provide tuition for nearly 400 student-athletes across the school’s 19 Division 1 sports.
NOTE: Offensive lineman Harneet Gill and linebacker Noah Robinson will be held out of the remainder of spring ball because of injuries. Robinson is recovering from an offseason procedure on his shoulder while Gill has been sidelined with an unspecified lower-body injury. Defensive back Austin Hall, who practiced Tuesday, is expected to have wrist surgery later this week and also will miss the final week of spring practice.