Malik Miller: True Auburn Man

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AUBURN, Alabama – On the inside of a college football team, value isn’t always measured in touchdowns scored or yards gained. So it is with Auburn running back Malik  Miller.

Miller arrived at Auburn in January of 2016 with the same dreams and goals of other players, but reality soon intervened. He suffered a knee injury that ended his first season after three games and plagued him for two more years. He struggled to regain the explosiveness that made him one of the state’s top prospects out of Madison Academy in Huntsville.

A fourth-year junior, Miller has carried the ball just 29 times in his career. But instead of pouting, he continued to work. If he didn’t carry the ball, he found other ways to help his team. He made himself a blocker supreme, by some distance the best pass protector among Auburn’s backs. He became a reliable receiver. He mentored younger players. And now he is a valuable and respected man on a team with championship aspirations.
“When most people would have gone ahead and done something different, he chose to hang in there and trust the process,” Auburn coach Gus Malzahn said. “He’s really helped us.”

For Miller, that was the natural response to a difficult situation.
“I made a commitment to be here,” Miller said. “At the end of the day, I’m here to do what is best for the team, whatever they ask me to do. All I know how to do is go hard. I’m going to give my all. It got frustrating at times, but at the end of the day I just want to win.”

Today, Miller is Auburn’s third-down running back.  He plays in two-minute situations. With leading rusher Boobee Whitlow out with a knee injury, he might get more carries when the No. 11 Tigers go to Arkansas on Saturday.
It’s hard for an athlete when he can’t do the things he has done and wants to do. And it has been hard at times for Miller. He chose to do all he could in whatever way he could to help his team win. “It’s been very frustrating with the knee deal,” Miller said. “I don’t let it get me down. Circumstances happen and you can’t control them. What you can control is how you react to them. At the end of the day, I just go hard and try to get stronger every day.”

Miller and his fellow running backs face a different kind of test now. Whitlow was the bellcow, but he woke up the Sunday after playing at Florida with a painfully stiff knee. He underwent arthroscopic surgery and will be out for at least a month.

Miller, senior Kam Martin, freshman D.J. Williams, sophomore Shaun Shivers and redshirt freshman Harold Joiner will be called on to carry on.
“Our mindset is next man up,” Miller said. “Boobee is kind of the leader of the group and a vital part of the offense, but we are a very confident group. We have confidence in everybody in the room, and we all know what we bring to the table. We are ready for challenge.”

For Miller, the challenge includes taking on charging defensive ends intent on smashing the quarterback. It includes catching the ball in crucial situations. It includes talking to young players about the realities of life in college football. It includes being focused on and off the field, in the weightroom and in the classroom. It includes doing whatever he is asked to do. He embraces it all.
That’s who he is. And that is a very good thing for Auburn’s football team.

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