Brit Miller comes from a working-class neighborhood in Decatur, Ill. Most of his adult relatives are either teachers, pipefitters or beauticians. Miller – sawed-off, beefy and often scruffy – looks a lot more like a pipefitter than a beautician. Turns out, teaching was the profession he thought he was heading for a year ago.
“I remember calling my dad and just, like, ‘Man, just get my room ready. I’m coming home,’ ” Miller recalled after today’s morning practice here in Santa Clara. “I called my uncle. I was gonna be a substitute teacher for him, because he’s a superintendent (of Macon County, Ill.). And I was making all these other plans to be elsewhere, just because football was just grinding and beating me down every day.”
Miller was miserable. He had led the Big Ten with 11 tackles per game as a senior in 2008, but the NFL didn’t want him as a linebacker. After Miller failed a stint with Carolina, the 49ers converted him to fullback in training camp a year ago, and running backs coach Tom Rathman spent the early part reminding him of all the areas in which he was deficient.
“When you’re not used to Rathman, I mean he can do that to you,” Miller said. “Because he expects perfection. But now I already know what he’s gonna say before he says it. … And it’s a little more comforting coming into camp having an idea what to do, and not guessing, not getting nervous in the huddle, and just going out and playing ball.”
Miller wound up on the 49ers’ practice squad after training camp in 2009. He parked there for 12 weeks before being elevated to the 53-man roster. He saw some action on special teams over the final five games of the regular season, and was later given the 2009 Thomas Herrion Award for taking advantage of opportunity.
This August, Miller is not only surviving but managing to stand out on a crowded field.
Monday, he delivered the biggest hit of the day when he blasted OLB Parys Haralson during team period. He later made some fearsome contact during the afternoon nutcracker drill, and even got loose to catch a deep pass from Alex Smith. He shone in the nutcracker again this morning, standing up LBs Keaton Kristick and Scott McKillop.
An obsessive note-taker – he’s a history major and Civil War buff – Miller has made huge strides in diagnosing defensive alignments and making the right adjustments (with plenty of help from starting FB Moran Norris, he notes), but he’s still making up ground. Miller didn’t play fullback even at Eisenhower High in Decatur, where he was mostly a quarterback and halfback.
“The blocking aspect’s where everything changes,” he said. “When the play’s behind you, O-line and fullback’s the only time in football when you don’t see where the ball is. Being a linebacker, I’m used to just getting there, making stuff happen.”
“His conversion has been good, and the fact that he played and was around all of last year has helped him going into this training camp, and I’ve been pleased with his performance to this point,” offensive coordinator Jimmy Raye said today. “He brings an element of physicality and he has speed and athleticism for that position, for the fullback, which usually leaves you short on one side of that…, because you’re usually an in-line box player.”
Not to suggest that Miller is a greyhound. He’s simply not as big or fast as many NFL players, and will never be able to dominate on pure ability. Of course, he never has.
“Just being where I’m from, we definitely have a blue-collar mentality,” Miller said. “We work for what we get. Not saying these (other) guys don’t. But just saying, like, I know that’s what I have to do to compete with these guys. I mean, a lot of them are a lot more talented than me. But as far as just competing, I think that’s where you make up the ground.”
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