Miller discovers true meaning of LSU football (12/31)

Posted December 30, 2008 at 11:57 pm
Filed Under Sports | 1 Comment

By SCOOTER HOBBS
AMERICAN PRESS

ATLANTA — Stick around the LSU football program as long as Ryan Miller has and you gradually pick up a new wardrobe.

A bowl sweatsuit here, a couple a workout T-shirts there. Pretty soon you’re talking a whole closet.

Miller wears them all. Almost exclusively. Just about every day.

Not that he needs to advertise that he’s a Tiger football player.

Even on a big campus like LSU, it would be hard to hide a 6-foot-6, 318-pound center.

“I just LIKE wearing the football stuff, I really like wearing it,” Miller said. “It’s not like bragging about it or anything, it’s just being proud of it.”

And few are more proud to be a Tiger than Miller, a former Barbe High star who will play his final collegiate game tonight when LSU takes on Georgia Tech in the Chick-fil-A Bowl.

He chose LSU because the Tigers were a top program close to home in a state he never plans to leave.

But he came to realize it was a lot more than that.

Gradually, he said, it hits you that it’s more than just teammates, family and friends.

“You realize you’re representing the whole state, that what you do does have an effect on so many people.

“And we’re aware of that. It’s a good feeling.”

After redshirting as a freshman for the 2004 season, it didn’t take long for Miller to realize the significance.

His first game was the hectic 2005 opener against Arizona State that was moved from Baton Rouge to the Tempe desert, what with the LSU campus being used as a triage center in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

“All of sudden we’re in Arizona, it was crazy,” he recalled.

Later he’d hear about how much of a relief it was to so many people in Louisiana when the Tigers, in the familiar gold helmet/white jersey ensemble, popped out of the dressing room on television, finally lending some sense of normalcy to a haywire situation.

The first home game came days after Hurricane Rita hit much closer to his own home, tearing up the family camp in Cameron Parish.

Quite an introduction to LSU football.

“But you do realize you can help,” he said, “just by doing what you do.”

He chuckled about a team meeting this year after Hurricane Gustav hit Baton Rouge and postponed the Troy game, when the Tigers were trying to figure out what they could do to help.

Defensive end Tyson Jackson stood up.

“He said, ‘I ain’t no electrician, I can’t build anything. But I can play football,’” Miller chuckled. “He said that’s what we ought to do.

“Big Herman (Johnson) agreed with him, although Herman could probably move a couple of houses by himself.

“But they’re right. That’s what we do. And you realize it affects people and it makes you feel good.”

Despite the relative downer of this year’s 7-5 season, a whole lot of Tiger fans have felt pretty good on Miller’s watch.

Last year’s national championship sticks out for him, of course, particularly the white-knuckler Florida game in which he had the key block on the last-minute, winning touchdown.

There was the subsequent trip to the White House to meet President Bush.

The Tigers have destroyed three bowl teams in Miller’s three previous years.

He felt good after this year’s Alabama game when Nick Saban, who recruited him to LSU, made sure he sought Miller out for a postgame handshake.

Just a few weeks ago at the team banquet he was presented the Charles Coates Academic Award, sharing it with fellow center Bret Helms, and the Alvin Roy Strength Award.

But, mainly, he figures in a dozen years or so when he looks back on his playing days, it will be the little things out of the spotlight that he remembers.

“Don’t get my wrong, I’m going to miss the games more than the practices,” he said. “But that was fun, too, just hanging out, clowning around with the guys before practice. That’s what I’ll remember, the friendships I’ve made.

“It becomes a part of you. After the last game when we had some time off, we were still working out but not at the same time.

“I run into Lyle (Hitt) in class, it was strange because I hadn’t seen him a couple of days.”

Tonight it all ends, although Miller said he will continue to work out with an eye toward impressing NFL scouts during LSU’s pro day workout.

“But I’ve thought about this being my last game,” he said. “I’m trying to take it all in because it’s been such a good time.”

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Comments

One Response to “Miller discovers true meaning of LSU football (12/31)”

Catherine and Jeff Townsend on December 31st, 2008 7:36 pm

We are proud of you, Ryan, and of LSU! This at kick-off time …

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