Brent Brennan's Arizona Wildcats TE Room Ready For Josh Miller

Arizona's tight ends have a new coach to lead the room in John Miller, who followed offensive coordinator Seth Doege from Marshal University in April this year.

Miller may have coached with Doege last year, but they have known each other for much longer than that, since 2016, to be exact. Their history goes all the way back to when the new tight ends coach was an assistant for St. Francis.

I was an assistant coach for my alma mater, St. Francis, Fort Wayne, Indiana," Miller said.

For two years Miller would offer his services to Bowling Green's camp since they were just a highways drive down from each other.

"And then (20)18 going into that year, they had a GA (graduate assistant) position open up and I reached out and I asked if there's any interest there. There was and it just kind of worked out...they took a chance on me and that's where my first stop with Coach Doege was."

Doege runs an uptempo spread offense that prioritizes widening out the defense. Miller acknowledges the uniqueness of the position in that offense.

They're not supposed to win any matchups on paper," Miller said. "They're not supposed to block a D-end, they're not supposed to run past the safety."

Now that Miller has taken over the responsibility of coaching the tight ends in Tucson, he wants them to follow the motto "choose violence".

"That's going to be aggressive with our run-pass. That's going to be aggressive with our blocking. That's going to be aggressive with tackling the football in the air."

Choosing violence doesn't just pertain to the football field, but to life in general for his new squad. Miller continued, "That's also going to be violent and aggressive in the classroom. We're going to attack our studies. We're going to violently pursue our relationships with people. Once they get that ingrained, that's the standard."

As an Ohio native, Miller's main point of attack in recruiting was the Midwest during his time at Marshall, Purdue and Midwestern State. Now that he is in the desert, he will mostly be attacking the west coast and Texas.

"This upcoming cycle, once it opens up again, will be a little bit more position specific," Miller said. "I'll probably be all over the country but still primarily within our bases of Texas, Arizona, California-more of the local areas depending on where we need to branch."

Miller has inherited three solid tight ends with different play styles in Cam Barmore, Sam Olson and Tyler Powell, something that he prefers to have, depending on what package is being run on offense.

"Tyler has a unique skill set of being able to run," Miller said. "Sam has an uncanny ability to feel space and be very aware with his surroundings. Cam Barmore is very savvy. He probably has the best athletic gate of the three natural receivers as he transitions."

Miller expressed a desire for his tight ends to be able to "slot out and create mismatches" when the play calls for it. He is still looking for the tight end who can make that happen.

"The five practices that we have left, I'm excited to see because it's no longer about effort and accountability," Miller said. "They give great effort, they're extremely accountable. Now, it's start to see some of those things as far as execution and playing faster. With that, I think we'll get a better tell of whether or not they can or cannot."

The depth at tight end only got deeper with Keyan Burnett deciding to transfer back to Arizona after a brief stint with Kansas in the spring.

If you liked this article and want to read more, make sure to follow our social media page by clicking the link.