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Pirate Notebook No. 78
Friday, August 16, 2002

By Denny O'Brien
Staff Writer and Columnist

East Carolina Football Media Day:
Kicker Kevin Miller, pictured launching a kick while former East Carolina quarterback David Garrard holds, knows better than most when and how to poke fun. But the Virginia Beach senior also has an innate ability to put on a deadly serious face when the time comes to get down to business. In a one-on-one interview with Bonesville's Denny O'Brien, Miller reflected on the unique role he plays in the mix of personalities and talents that make up this season's ECU football team...

Listen to the 10-minute interview...

GREENVILLE — It may seem unnatural for a team to look to its kicker for leadership.

But as East Carolina head coach Steve Logan will tell you, Kevin Miller's route to success has been anything but ordinary.

When Miller arrived on campus, his athletic niche was lacing dimply, white balls down plush, green fairways.

Today, he continues to focus on the perfect combination of distance and accuracy. But instead of a shiny new Titleist and a small tin cup, the Virginia Beach native now drives Wilson-issued pigskins through narrow, florescent-yellow goalposts.

And little by little, the senior golfer-turned-kicker is rewriting the ECU record books, which is why he is well-revered among his teammates.

"Those kinds of players (leaders) have to be validated on the field," Logan said. "Kevin Miller is a guy that has got a lot of respect on this football team. Kevin is looked upon by this football team as a football player. He's not — you know — 'the' kicker.

"He's validated himself on the field. He's gone out in some really tough situations. Two years ago, Kevin Miller walked on the field and single-handedly won a football game for us with some ridiculous 70-yard punt at Louisville. It was just something that a competitor goes out and does, and he did it."

With the Pirates leading eventual league champion Louisville 28-26 late in the fourth quarter, Miller, who went into the 2000 season as the Pirates' emergency punter in addition to the first-string kicker, calmly booted a 66-yard punt that pinned the Cardinals down to their 16-yard line. The kick produced too much real estate for Louisville to overcome, and also garnered a Conference USA special teams player-of-the-week award for the Pirates' two-way kicker.

As a freshman, Miller made 11-of-15 field goals and nailed all 17 of his extra point attempts, earning spots on both the C-USA All-Freshman and Freshman All-American teams. That's quite an accomplishment considering he missed four games with a pulled quadriceps muscle.

After slumping somewhat during his sophomore year, Miller bounced back for a stellar 2001 campaign, hitting 14 of his 17 field goal attempts, which is an ECU single-season record for accuracy (82.4 percent). Against Marshall in the GMAC Bowl, he hit all four of his field goal tries, scoring 19 points — both single-game records for the Pirates.

With another solid season, Miller could etch his name atop both the East Carolina and C-USA record books for career points and field goals made.

Though he doesn't like to brag, Miller acknowledges that his performance speaks for itself and he embraces his role as one of the Pirates' lead dogs.

"Coach Logan always talks about leaders, first of all, have to be guys that have proven themselves on the field," Miller said. "I think I've proven myself on the field. And all the other guys that he's mentioned — the Richard Alstons, the Christshawn Gilliams — have also done that.

"It's a little bit harder for me to be a leader because I'm not an every down player like those guys. I only get maybe five or ten plays a game between field goals and kickoffs. So, I can't run around and bang guys on the head and kind of jack them up and do the things that some of the other leaders do. But I can do other things when I see guys doing something they're not supposed to do, calling them out a little bit."

Perhaps the turning point for Miller occurred following his sophomore slump. Still fighting that nagging leg injury, he struggled for much of the season, hitting just ten of his 17 attempts.

So instead of spending a relaxing summer on the links, Miller opted to get physical by participating in Coach Jim Whitten's strength and conditioning program. It was a move that not only reshaped his body, but also cultivated strong relationships in the locker room.

"I got a little stronger," Miller said. "I kind of got a taste for it last summer — how working out for a couple of months over the summer can really help me.

"I feel like I'm the strongest I've ever been in the upper body, which you know, a lot of people say 'Who cares — you're the kicker.' But I feel a lot better about myself, and hopefully I can get going this year like I did last year."

Confidence in the weight room has fostered a comfort zone in the locker room. When his teammates become frustrated or overly tense, Miller will be the first to crack a joke or even deliver one of his uncanny impressions.

His stand-up humor, believe it or not, is what sets him apart among the Pirates' leaders.

"I think part of being a leader is keeping guys loose when you need to be," Miller said. "I'm probably one of the first guys to joke around with the guys and mess around.

"I usually don't get too physical. I just like to mess around with the guys and do some impressions — keep the guys laughing a little bit."

Coach Logan is among the most requested impersonations, which is guaranteed to get the clubhouse rolling. Complete with an Oklahoma drawl and stern look, Miller has mastered the sound and expressions of his head coach.

He's even pinpointed a few phrases Logan has made famous east of I-95, like this one:

"Here we are again, it's just win the next game," Miller said. "That's all we can do. There is no next level — I just don't get that."

Though he admittedly enjoys the lighthearted aspects of his role, Miller knows when it's time to take care of business, something he says the Pirates haven't done over the past two seasons. Discussing the topic quickly removes the cheerful smile from his face, replacing it with expressions of determination and focus.

When he examines the late-game collapses and suggestions that the Pirates have become the hunted, the astute kicker admits East Carolina may have lacked the very fabric on which the program was built.

"We may have lost a little bit of that chip on the shoulder," Miller said. "We also aren't sneaking up on people, so to speak.

"I remember in '99 and my first game ever against West Virginia, the preseason magazines were saying we were a lightweight team, and that was kind of our motivation going in."

The Pirates now find themselves in a situation similar to '99 — a year in which ECU defied the odds and conquered hurricanes of various sorts. Instead of savvy veterans and Saturday superstars, Logan is looking to a collection of greenhorns to carry the torch at marquee positions.

That formula — 85 relative unknowns with something to prove — has worked for ECU in the past. This time, though, the preseason prognosticators aren't buying it.

"It never changes," Miller said. "I'm sure it kind of sounds like coach-speak and all that stuff, but we expect to win the conference every year. Just because people outside don't expect it (shouldn't matter). We still do.

"We were pretty close last year — we've been close the last couple of years. We've just got to go and beat a couple of good teams on the road in Southern Miss and Louisville, and we've got to go beat a couple of good teams at home. We expect to win the conference every year and be at the Liberty Bowl."

Miller, for one, plans to do whatever it takes to deliver that first-ever C-USA championship — be it a late-game field goal, or a halftime improvisational stand-up act.