Walking on for kicks
Two numbers are about to take on a major role in Jake Miller’s young life.
Like most college students, the Central Valley graduate will keep a close eye on his grade-point average when he heads to Pullman to attend Washington State University.
The other number that will consume Miller is his hang time.
The all-state kicker and punter agreed to walk on at WSU and vie for a spot on the Cougars’ special teams, battling sixth-year senior Reid Forrest for the team’s starting punter job.
“I had a good visit (in Pullman),” Miller explained. “I wanted to go to WSU – my mom was a Cougar and so are several members of my family. I met with almost all of the coaches down there and a lot of the players. I’m going to have fun there.
“They told me they primarily want me to compete with Reid at punter, but if I can win the job at kicker, I can do that too. Right now I’m planning on concentrating on punting.”
Miller, who averaged 41.3 yards per punt on the field for the Bears and 3.8 g.p.a. in the classroom, falls into a special class of walk-on for football coach Paul Wulff. As a preferred walk-on, Miller will be allowed to begin practice at the start of fall camp instead of having to wait to start practice when classes begin. Each school is allowed a set number of preferred walk-on players each year.
“The way it works is that I walk on my first year, and when I start getting playing time I should get a scholarship,” Miller said. “I understand the way that works – you only have a certain number of scholarships and you don’t want to waste them on second-string punters or kickers.”
All-American kickers Drew Dunning (2003) and Jason Hanson (1989) both began their WSU careers as walk-ons. So did Rian Lindell, who went on to have a successful NFL career, and punters Gavin Hedrick and Tim Davey.
Miller punted for three seasons for the Bears, but was stuck behind kicker Blaze Vela until his senior season.
“Blaze and I are good friends and I really enjoyed competing with him every day in practice,” Miller said. “It was strange this last year to not have him there and not have anyone pushing me for my job.”
Miller was a standout at both kicking positions his senior year. As a kicker he converted 8 of 10 field goal attempts and 25 of 27 extra points.
In the Bears’ win over Greater Spokane League rival Ferris, Miller connected on field goals from 45 and 50, the latter his season-best distance to give the Bears the 34-31 victory, and then recovered his own onsides kick.
“It was right after that game that the Washington State coaches started talking to me,” Miller said. “I was glad to have had a good game against Ferris – I didn’t have one the week before against Post Falls and I owed it to my teammates.”
For his efforts, he was named both the all-GSL kicker and punter, was tabbed the Seattle Times all-classification all-state punter, the Tacoma News Tribune all-classification all-state kicker and the Associated Press Class 4A All-State kicker. He capped his prep career in last week’s East-West All-Star game.
Miller began his kicking career in the seventh grade when he announced to his father, Doug, that he wanted to quit playing soccer and play football.
“He suggested that I try being a kicker and he helped me learn how to kick and punt,” he said.
The kicking part of Miller’s game got more complicated the older he got. As a senior, he stood 6-feet-5 and 205 pounds.
“When you’re 6-5, it gets a little tricky getting your steps right,” Miller said. “But for punting, it helps to be tall.”
Miller is not the first Central Valley graduate to aspire to kick on the Palouse. Mike Hollis, who still holds the GSL record for most field goals in a career, booting 19 between 1987 and 1989, was a standout kicker at the University of Idaho before going on to kick for three teams in the National Football League. He now runs a series of kicking camps, including one later this month at his alma mater.
Miller said he’s unsure of his summer plans between now and the start of fall practices in August.
“I’m going to talk with (CV) Coach (Rick) Giampietri about Mike Hollis’ camp,” he said. “Mostly I’m looking forward to just practicing my punting. My dad likes to go out with me and snap the ball for me to kick. It’s fun.”