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Tracking the College Gridiron Stars of the Future

Football Recruiting Report Sunday, August 10, 2003 By Sammy Batten Staff Writer for The Fayetteville Observer

Dantzler reincarnated? Nope, Miller has better arm

©2003 Bonesville.net

East Carolina's new offensive coordinator Rick Stockstill directed one of the most dynamic quarterbacks in college football history during the 2001 season while an assistant at Clemson.

Stockstill also recruited that player, Woodrow Dantzler, who became the first college quarterback to pass for 2,000 yards and rush for 1,000 in the same year.

Wide receiver coach Lonnie Galloway and Stockstill may have recruited a player last month with similar talents for ECU's Class of 2004 in Charlotte's Antonio Miller.

Miller is the quarterback for Olympic High School, where his junior statistics ranked just behind heralded Chris Leak of Independence for top honors in Mecklenburg County. Second-team all-county honors were the result of Miller's 2,610 passing and 864 rushing yards for a 3-9 team.

While Leak headed for Florida, Miller has chosen to follow another Charlottean quarterback, Paul Troth, to Greenville. Miller gave a verbal commitment to the Pirates on July 13, turning down offers from Kansas State, Marshall, Virginia and Wake Forest.

The contenders for ECU's starting quarterback job, Troth and Desmond Robinson, are both juniors this year and will likely be finished with their eligibility after the 2004 season. By then, Miller believes he'll get the chance to challenge Florida transfer Patrick Dosh, James Pinkney and Pierre Parker for the quarterback duties.

"Kansas State was talking about me sitting out for a couple of years, then playing,'' Miller said. "But at East Carolina I'll sit for one year, then have a chance for a starting position. That made a big difference to me.''

Sound confident?

If so, it's confidence developed over time through diligent work, according to Olympic coach Maurice Flowers.

Flowers arrived in Charlotte from the prep football Mecca around Dallas in 2001. Miller was entering the 10th grade and was the player Flowers most wanted to meet on his first day.

Miller had been a varsity backup as a freshman, but had taken just two snaps all season. He would go on to pass for 1,300 yards and rush for 500 as a sophomore.

"The first thing I did was find out who my quarterback would be,'' Flowers said. "The coaches took me to the house of this rising sophomore. He was just a skinny little kid when I first saw him.

"But in the past couple of years he's been the hardest worker in our program, from the weight room to the field. Right now he power cleans 265 pounds, which is the most on our team. He's one of our strongest in bench press and squats. He's been clocked at 4.49 in the 40, so he's also one of the fastest players on our team.

"Antonio has just done everything we really want him to do, and everything he needed to do to become a great player. I expect he'll continue that with the coaches at East Carolina.''

Galloway was the lead coach in recruiting Miller, according to Flowers, but Stockstill's connection to Dantzler's legacy was a major factor as well.

"He's a Woody Dantzler who throws better,'' Flowers said. "He's not as fast as Woody. Woody was a better runner. But Antonio is a better passer. He's more of a pure quarterback than Woody.''

Miller didn't contest what his coach had to say.

"I am a running and throwing quarterback. I agree with that comparison,'' said Miller, who has a goal to rush for 1,000 yards as a senior at Olympic.

Steve Logan's coaching staff had begun recruiting Miller for ECU after getting a look at him during their summer camp in 2002. John Thompson's staff picked up the interest after replacing Logan and crew in January.

But by then Kansas State seemed to have the upper hand in recruiting Miller, who was serious enough to make an unofficial visit to the school's campus in Manhattan, Kan., last spring.

Miller didn't give in to the strong urge to commit to Kansas State because he wanted a chance to play sooner. He eventually returned to Greenville this summer for a one-day football camp, after which Thompson's staff extended an offer.

"What won him over was being able to run and throw it at East Carolina,'' Flower said. "He was offered scholarships by some of the top quarterback schools in the country. Marshall had offered him in February and they've had two straight first-round draft picks at quarterback in Chad Pennington and Byron Leftwich. He was really seriously considering a commitment to Kansas State, which had Michael Bishop and now has Ell Roberson as Heisman candidates.

"But East Carolina did a great job recruiting Antonio. Lonnie Galloway, who was a quarterback himself at Western Carolina, jumped in. And so did Coach Stockstill, who had a great background himself. They came in and sold Antonio on being a Woodrow Dantzler-type of quarterback. That's pretty much what won it out.''

Miller's commitment was the first for East Carolina, which also capped its recruiting efforts for 2003 just last week by signing Okmulgee, Oklahoma running back-linebacker Eric Johnson.

Johnson became the 21st member of the '03 class, thanks in large part to ECU defensive line coach Art Kaufman. Kaufman had previously recruited players from the Okmulgee area and remembered Johnson when he joined the Pirates' staff.

Surprisingly, the 6-2, 205-pound Johnson was making plans to play in junior college despite being qualified academically and coming off a 1,233-yard rushing effort as a senior.

"Our coaches felt all along he was a Division I player,'' Okmulgee coach Dan Morgan said. "He had some offers, but nothing concrete, so he was going to a junior college in Miami, Okla. Then Coach Thompson and Coach Kaufman came in, and the rest is history.''

Johnson was a rare freshman contributor on the Okmulgee varsity even before Morgan became head coach.

"Eric has been a man since he was a freshman,'' Morgan said. "I've been involved with the athletic program here for 30 years, and I've coached football off and on for 21 of those. We don't play many freshmen on the high school level. But he's been starting since he was a freshman.

"We saw early on something special about Eric. I compare him to a Roy Williams-type guy. He can run and he'll hit you. He really has a nose for the football. He's just a gifted athlete.''

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02/23/2007 02:35:45 PM