Quarterback Jack Miller missed the regular season due to a thumb injury. He is competing for the starter's job this spring. (Photo: Emma Bissell/UAA Communications)
Miller Strives to Not Lose Sight of His Goal in QB Competition
Sunday, March 26, 2023 | Football, Scott Carter
Share:
By: Scott Carter, Senior Writer
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — A decade has passed since Jack Miller IIIdeveloped a relationship with former Gators quarterback Tim Tebow through a Florida pastor that both families knew. And in a way, Miller has accomplished what he told Tebow was his goal.
Miller wanted to play college football at the highest level. Tebow told Miller he had to push himself in uncommon ways to do so. Miller took the advice to heart, and before finishing elementary school, Miller wrote down some goals and put them on his bedroom wall. They were simple: do as many push-ups and sit-ups as he could each day, and put in the work on the field to make his dream come true.
Oh, and stop chugging soft drinks.
Ten years later, Miller is competing for the job that made Tebow famous: starting quarterback for the Florida Gators. Miller, a fourth-year junior, is battling Wisconsin transfer Graham Mertz to replace Anthony Richardson.
The path here has not been easy for Miller, but he has not given up on reaching his ultimate goal of playing in the NFL.
"You just have to stay focused on the main goal and what you want,'' Miller said. "It's easy to get sidetracked when all these things happen, but as long you keep the main goal — the main thing, the main thing — I think it's pretty easy to stay focused just like I have."
Miller spoke to reporters on Saturday for the first time since his Florida debut three months ago against Oregon State in the Las Vegas Bowl ended in a 31-3 loss. The bowl game is Miller's only appearance with the Gators since transferring from Ohio State after the 2021 season.
A year ago, he missed the regular season after suffering a thumb avulsion fracture early in preseason camp that required surgery and extensive rehab to grip a football.
"Initially, it was a torn UCL, but there was a fragment of my bone that chipped off with it, which made it a little more complicated to connect it all back in surgery,'' Miller said. "The hardest part was just being able to bend it and all that stuff. It was really hard to get back to full-capacity strength."
Quarterback Jack Miller III's only appearance at Florida came in December's Las Vegas Bowl. (Photo: Jordan Herald/UAA Communications)
The injury and time off allowed Miller to reassess his vision and evaluate his place on the roster after Richardson's departure for the NFL Draft and Jalen Kitna's dismissal late in the regular season.
Suddenly, Miller was atop the depth chart unexpectedly from where he started.
Following his injury, Miller said he spent about four weeks trying to regain the strength in his right hand by tossing around youth-sized footballs. Once he graduated to regulation-sized balls, it took about another four weeks to feel comfortable. By the time Richardson opted out of the bowl game to prepare for the draft and Miller started the Las Vegas Bowl, he said he was healthy but rusty in finishing 13 of 22 for 180 yards.
"It was definitely good for me to get my first start under my felt," he said. "It was just a good experience for me. I finally got to play in a game and see what it's really like to start a game, prepare for a game. It kind of fueled my offseason. It was definitely not the performance I wanted or how I envisioned it going. I've been pissed about it since it happened."
Miller was ranked one of the top prep quarterbacks in the country coming out of Scottsdale (Ariz.) Chaparral High in the 2020 signing class. Through his father, a Florida native who grew up in Cocoa Beach, and the Tebow connection, the Miller family developed a relationship with former Gators and Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer.
Miller signed with the Buckeyes and watched from the sideline as quarterback CJ Stroud became a star. He then watched Richardson in his first season at Florida, giving him the distinction of playing behind two quarterbacks in the running to be the No. 1 overall pick in the upcoming NFL Draft.
"These past three years, I've learned a lot from both those guys," Miller said. "It's been super good for me, honestly. I feel like this year is the most prepared, the best I have felt in a really long time. I'm excited."
Miller said his focus is to improve his timing with receivers, learn as much about defensive recognition as possible through countless hours of film study, and talk to head coach Billy Napier and quarterback analyst Ryan O'Hara about the finer points of the position.
The next step is to show it on the field this spring and fall camp.
"Jack is benefiting from being in his second year,'' Napier said.
Despite his winding college career and the fact that the Gators signed Mertz as a mid-year enrollee – Napier has also said the Gators will add another scholarship quarterback over the summer – Miller is undeterred.
"I embrace competition,'' he said. "I love it. It's just going to make us all better. It's been a really good competition. We both embrace it and Max [Brown] as well. We all love to compete, so it's been a really fun spring so far. I mean, I'm just trying to get better every single day. I'm not too worried about all that stuff."
Sounds like another lesson Miller picked up over the years from Tebow.
