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03-24-2006, 02:04 PM
20 questions with Jeff Miller
Rockdale’s new coach answers questions about Mexican food, superstitions and his handy man skills
Jeff Miller was hired as Rockdale’s new athletic director/head football coach on Feb. 27. The Reporter plays 20 questions with the laid back coach to gain an insight to his personality.
Rockdale Reporter: Did you know anything about Rockdale before you applied for the job?
Jeff Miller: I really didn’t have much of an insight or background information of what Rockdale had to offer. I guess I knew the location suited what we were looking for for the family. Then after researching it I realized it had quite a bit of tradition and then talking with some of the people from around the town, from around the area that have played against Rockdale in the past, seemed to be everything I got was a lot of real good people, a lot of good kids, that were usually very competitive and played real hard. It was definitely something that intrigued me and I wanted to find out more about it.
Rockdale Reporter: What’s your favorite food?
Jeff Miller: I’m a Mexican food junkie.
Rockdale Reporter: Where’s your favorite place to eat Mexican food?
Jeff Miller:I like any of these little hole in the walls. I think the big selling point on us taking this job was when we came into town and saw a couple of small Mexican food joints and the Super Wal-Mart. My wife saw the Wal-Mart and I saw the Mexican food places_—we were in. It doesn’t take much to get us hooked.
Rockdale Reporter: Did you ever have a nickname?
Jeff Miller:None that I want to go into.
Rockdale Reporter: Tell us about the Odessa Permian game your senior year. (Miller was the quarterback for Cypress Fairbanks when they lost to Odessa Permian 10-7 in the 1985 Class 4A state semifinals).
Jeff Miller:I can still tell you every play. I was really on a roll coming in, but against Permian I played absolutely the worst game a quarterback could imagine. I pitched it on the ground once on a option. I hadn’t thrown an interception since I guess week seven and I threw two to guys who were open. But probably the big play was I had a guy open down the sideline, we kind of snuck him out there, and as soon as I let the ball go I had my hands in the air because I knew it was six and I over threw him by about a yard. He couldn’t go get it. And so there were quite a few turning points in the game, unfortunately most of them geared around me. I just didn’t have a night, I had played out of my mind for four or five weeks. I guess I finally played the way I was supposed to play, I don’t know. That was 20 years ago and I still relive every play.
Rockdale Reporter: What’s the hardest you ever got hit as a quarterback?
Jeff Miller: I broke my jaw the seventh game of my senior season and had it wired shut, but I didn’t miss any ball games. It took me a couple of weeks to not be scared. We were running the option against Klein Forest and I took a pretty good hit. The tight end thought we were running veer block and I thought he was base blocking, so I wasn’t looking at the defensive end, I was looking downfield at the strong safety and all of a sudden the defensive end’s there—pop ! I went ahead and made the pitch and we did score on it. He broke (my jaw) in half.
Rockdale Reporter: Your senior year you weren’t on anybody’s blue chip list, how did you end up at Nebraska?
Jeff Miller: Well, I don’t really know. There weren’t really a lot of schools recruiting me. It came down to Texas Tech, Texas A&M and Nebraska. I really wanted to go to A&M but after my visit, it really turned me off on A&M. It was all a Jackie Sherrill thing. Looking back, I probably should have gone to Tech, but at the time Nebraska was one of the top teams in the nation. There was talk that they were going to start throwing the ball more and I was the only one on campus who could throw. I could run a little bit, but I couldn’t run with the guys they had there. The guy that was recruiting me really liked the way I ran the field. In high school, I couldn’t help but be successful. I was in a great situation, everytime the ball left my hand, somebody caught it and everytime I ran it, all the keys were on the tailback. I didn’t put up great stats. I think Nebraska was the only team for sure that said I could play quarterback. The others would probably move me to outside linebacker or fullback. So my second year at Nebraska, they moved me to fullback.
Rockdale Reporter: Who’s the best athlete you ever played with?
Jeff Miller: When I decided to transfer to Southwestern Louisiana I thought this will be great I can go here and play quarterback. Well, I go there and probably the best athlete in the country was playing quarterback, Brian Mitchell, who just retired as the NFL’s all-time kickoff and punt return leader. He was the quarterback and he was a better quarterback than anybody at Nebraska. He was something special and I ended up backing him up. It didn’t work out quite the way I planned it, but it was pretty easy to sit and watch him play. He was so smart. I held all the Nebraska quarterback lifting records but I could not lift with him for anything. We were very good friends.
Rockdale Reporter: You guys ever go to Mardi Gras?
Jeff Miller: I never did, it’s too dangerous. Louisiana’s a little wild.
Rockdale Reporter: Who’s the best athlete you’ve ever coached?
Jeff Miller: Probably the two best I’ve ever coached, one of them was Bo Trahan (University of Texas) and then actually right up there in that same category there was a kid that just walked on at A&M, he played quarterback for me at Jacksboro, Anthony Carter and he’s playing receiver. Those two are the two best all-around athletes I’ve ever coached.
Rockdale Reporter: What’s you favorite movie?
Jeff Miller: I’m not a big movie person.
Okay, what’s the last movie you saw?
I actually watched one last night. Ocean’s 11. How old is that? I like the thrillers, I tell you what I liked, Man on Fire.
Rockdale Reporter: You went to high school in the ‘80s. Do you have a favorite song from the 80s?
Jeff Miller: No. I don’t do that. I was a big Kenny Rogers fan. Alabama too. My radio doesn’t ever come on. My wife is always messing with the controls. I’m pretty boring.
Rockdale Reporter: What’s the sport that you always wanted to play but never did?
Jeff Miller: When I was younger I was an awfully good basketball player_— seventh, eighth, ninth grade. But I was at a school where it was probably beneficial that I specialize. I did what I wanted to become. I wasn’t built to be a gymnast. Football and track were the two things I enjoyed the most. Usually, you enjoy what you’re good at. I really enjoyed track, especially the decathlon. My dad hauled me all over the country doing that.
Rockdale Reporter:We all know how superstitious athletes and coaches are, what are yours?
Jeff Miller:I used to be a lot more superstitious than I am now. I try to wear the same stuff if we win. I know there’s a lot of people that don’t wash their underwear, but I do. I wouldn’t shave on game days. Always sit in the same seat on the bus, try to keep my routine the same, but if we lose it all changes.
Rockdale Reporter:If you weren’t a coach, what profession do you think you might enjoy?
Jeff Miller:I never thought about it. I knew when I was seven that I was going to coach. That’s all I wanted to do. I could probably sell you something, I guess. I can’t even fathom doing anything else. I’m just here to coach. I’ll be a good administrator as far as athletic director, I have been, but I just want to be out there with the kids.
Rockdale Reporter: Okay, for our female readership, what’s the one thing your wife Angel can’t get you to do at home?
Jeff Miller: Oh man, that’s a long list. My dirty clothes can’t seem to find the right spot. I am absolutely the worst handyman there ever was. I can’t fix anything, I can’t work on a car, I’m lucky to get the thing started. I’m just now getting to where I can change a tire and jump off a battery. We bought a house in Jacksboro and put a lot of work into it and my wife did all the work. I can’t paint, I can’t fix anything. I’m just not handy. Part of it is I played the game when we first got married, she would ask me to do something and I would mess it up so now I don’t get asked to do anything. Now, I can cook. I do a lot of the cooking.
Rockdale Reporter: Do you have a speciality?
Jeff Miller:I can cook a pretty good etoufee and gumbo. Now up in North Texas they don’t know what good cajun food tastes like so they think mine’s pretty good. Get down here, they may laugh at me.
Rockdale’s new coach answers questions about Mexican food, superstitions and his handy man skills
Jeff Miller was hired as Rockdale’s new athletic director/head football coach on Feb. 27. The Reporter plays 20 questions with the laid back coach to gain an insight to his personality.
Rockdale Reporter: Did you know anything about Rockdale before you applied for the job?
Jeff Miller: I really didn’t have much of an insight or background information of what Rockdale had to offer. I guess I knew the location suited what we were looking for for the family. Then after researching it I realized it had quite a bit of tradition and then talking with some of the people from around the town, from around the area that have played against Rockdale in the past, seemed to be everything I got was a lot of real good people, a lot of good kids, that were usually very competitive and played real hard. It was definitely something that intrigued me and I wanted to find out more about it.
Rockdale Reporter: What’s your favorite food?
Jeff Miller: I’m a Mexican food junkie.
Rockdale Reporter: Where’s your favorite place to eat Mexican food?
Jeff Miller:I like any of these little hole in the walls. I think the big selling point on us taking this job was when we came into town and saw a couple of small Mexican food joints and the Super Wal-Mart. My wife saw the Wal-Mart and I saw the Mexican food places_—we were in. It doesn’t take much to get us hooked.
Rockdale Reporter: Did you ever have a nickname?
Jeff Miller:None that I want to go into.
Rockdale Reporter: Tell us about the Odessa Permian game your senior year. (Miller was the quarterback for Cypress Fairbanks when they lost to Odessa Permian 10-7 in the 1985 Class 4A state semifinals).
Jeff Miller:I can still tell you every play. I was really on a roll coming in, but against Permian I played absolutely the worst game a quarterback could imagine. I pitched it on the ground once on a option. I hadn’t thrown an interception since I guess week seven and I threw two to guys who were open. But probably the big play was I had a guy open down the sideline, we kind of snuck him out there, and as soon as I let the ball go I had my hands in the air because I knew it was six and I over threw him by about a yard. He couldn’t go get it. And so there were quite a few turning points in the game, unfortunately most of them geared around me. I just didn’t have a night, I had played out of my mind for four or five weeks. I guess I finally played the way I was supposed to play, I don’t know. That was 20 years ago and I still relive every play.
Rockdale Reporter: What’s the hardest you ever got hit as a quarterback?
Jeff Miller: I broke my jaw the seventh game of my senior season and had it wired shut, but I didn’t miss any ball games. It took me a couple of weeks to not be scared. We were running the option against Klein Forest and I took a pretty good hit. The tight end thought we were running veer block and I thought he was base blocking, so I wasn’t looking at the defensive end, I was looking downfield at the strong safety and all of a sudden the defensive end’s there—pop ! I went ahead and made the pitch and we did score on it. He broke (my jaw) in half.
Rockdale Reporter: Your senior year you weren’t on anybody’s blue chip list, how did you end up at Nebraska?
Jeff Miller: Well, I don’t really know. There weren’t really a lot of schools recruiting me. It came down to Texas Tech, Texas A&M and Nebraska. I really wanted to go to A&M but after my visit, it really turned me off on A&M. It was all a Jackie Sherrill thing. Looking back, I probably should have gone to Tech, but at the time Nebraska was one of the top teams in the nation. There was talk that they were going to start throwing the ball more and I was the only one on campus who could throw. I could run a little bit, but I couldn’t run with the guys they had there. The guy that was recruiting me really liked the way I ran the field. In high school, I couldn’t help but be successful. I was in a great situation, everytime the ball left my hand, somebody caught it and everytime I ran it, all the keys were on the tailback. I didn’t put up great stats. I think Nebraska was the only team for sure that said I could play quarterback. The others would probably move me to outside linebacker or fullback. So my second year at Nebraska, they moved me to fullback.
Rockdale Reporter: Who’s the best athlete you ever played with?
Jeff Miller: When I decided to transfer to Southwestern Louisiana I thought this will be great I can go here and play quarterback. Well, I go there and probably the best athlete in the country was playing quarterback, Brian Mitchell, who just retired as the NFL’s all-time kickoff and punt return leader. He was the quarterback and he was a better quarterback than anybody at Nebraska. He was something special and I ended up backing him up. It didn’t work out quite the way I planned it, but it was pretty easy to sit and watch him play. He was so smart. I held all the Nebraska quarterback lifting records but I could not lift with him for anything. We were very good friends.
Rockdale Reporter: You guys ever go to Mardi Gras?
Jeff Miller: I never did, it’s too dangerous. Louisiana’s a little wild.
Rockdale Reporter: Who’s the best athlete you’ve ever coached?
Jeff Miller: Probably the two best I’ve ever coached, one of them was Bo Trahan (University of Texas) and then actually right up there in that same category there was a kid that just walked on at A&M, he played quarterback for me at Jacksboro, Anthony Carter and he’s playing receiver. Those two are the two best all-around athletes I’ve ever coached.
Rockdale Reporter: What’s you favorite movie?
Jeff Miller: I’m not a big movie person.
Okay, what’s the last movie you saw?
I actually watched one last night. Ocean’s 11. How old is that? I like the thrillers, I tell you what I liked, Man on Fire.
Rockdale Reporter: You went to high school in the ‘80s. Do you have a favorite song from the 80s?
Jeff Miller: No. I don’t do that. I was a big Kenny Rogers fan. Alabama too. My radio doesn’t ever come on. My wife is always messing with the controls. I’m pretty boring.
Rockdale Reporter: What’s the sport that you always wanted to play but never did?
Jeff Miller: When I was younger I was an awfully good basketball player_— seventh, eighth, ninth grade. But I was at a school where it was probably beneficial that I specialize. I did what I wanted to become. I wasn’t built to be a gymnast. Football and track were the two things I enjoyed the most. Usually, you enjoy what you’re good at. I really enjoyed track, especially the decathlon. My dad hauled me all over the country doing that.
Rockdale Reporter:We all know how superstitious athletes and coaches are, what are yours?
Jeff Miller:I used to be a lot more superstitious than I am now. I try to wear the same stuff if we win. I know there’s a lot of people that don’t wash their underwear, but I do. I wouldn’t shave on game days. Always sit in the same seat on the bus, try to keep my routine the same, but if we lose it all changes.
Rockdale Reporter:If you weren’t a coach, what profession do you think you might enjoy?
Jeff Miller:I never thought about it. I knew when I was seven that I was going to coach. That’s all I wanted to do. I could probably sell you something, I guess. I can’t even fathom doing anything else. I’m just here to coach. I’ll be a good administrator as far as athletic director, I have been, but I just want to be out there with the kids.
Rockdale Reporter: Okay, for our female readership, what’s the one thing your wife Angel can’t get you to do at home?
Jeff Miller: Oh man, that’s a long list. My dirty clothes can’t seem to find the right spot. I am absolutely the worst handyman there ever was. I can’t fix anything, I can’t work on a car, I’m lucky to get the thing started. I’m just now getting to where I can change a tire and jump off a battery. We bought a house in Jacksboro and put a lot of work into it and my wife did all the work. I can’t paint, I can’t fix anything. I’m just not handy. Part of it is I played the game when we first got married, she would ask me to do something and I would mess it up so now I don’t get asked to do anything. Now, I can cook. I do a lot of the cooking.
Rockdale Reporter: Do you have a speciality?
Jeff Miller:I can cook a pretty good etoufee and gumbo. Now up in North Texas they don’t know what good cajun food tastes like so they think mine’s pretty good. Get down here, they may laugh at me.