In This Corner

In short, Miller has been coaching in Canada for several seasons, moving up there after he left Redlands about seven years ago.

Miller was known for being extremely calm and patient. Which came in handy when he was handed the Redlands football program after the legendary (at Redlands) Paul Serrao stepped down.

Redlands was heading into perhaps its lowest ebb, as a school and as an athletic department. Football was given little time and attention, and perhaps nothing says more about it that the fact that Miller was BOTH football and baseball coach for a while, there.

Eventually, James Appleton was hired as Redlands president and charged with turning around the struggling liberal arts college, which had seen its enrollment sag dramatically.

Appleton was a football enthusiast. However, he didn't think the Bulldogs could rally under Miller, and Miller was edged aside so that Mike Maynard could be brought in. Miller then continued several seasons as Redlands' baseball coach.

He's a good guy, and did his best in some difficult circumstances. Today's appointment represents the pinnacle of his coaching career, to date.

Here is a feature story on Miller that appeared in the Tryon (N.C.) Daily Bulletin last week, before he got the head-coaching job.

‘Something of a treasure’
Joey Millwood
February 1, 2008

It took Maureen Miller a few times to be able to say Saskatchewan comfortably.
Her husband, Ken Miller, became the offensive coordinator for the Canadian Football League’s (CFL) Saskatchewan Roughriders last year. Ken and Maureen live in Tryon during the offseason.
By November, however, as her husband, coaches and players were hoisting the CFL’s version of the Super Bowl trophy, the Grey Cup, Maureen was able to scream Saskatchewan with all the other fans who were celebrating their team’s championship win.
“It was wonderful,” she said.
It was the 66-year-old Miller’s second Grey Cup win since 2004. That year, he was the offensive line coach for the Toronto Argonauts.
But while he knew of the CFL and was familiar with the team, the journey to Canada was long for the two-time Grey Cup-winning coach.
The resume
Miller has always been on the outer fringes of the CFL. When he was growing up in Oregon, they were far enough north that CFL games were played on the local networks.
Then he went to college in North Dakota, which is just south of where he now coaches in Saskatchewan.
His first coaching job was at his alma mater, Dickson State College in North Dakota. He was a graduate assistant for the football team in 1966.
Miller moved on and coached high school football in Oregon from 1967 until 1969. In 1969, he began coaching high school football in Southern California. In 1977, he was a public school adminstrator and a part-time coach at the University of Redlands. In 1984, he began coaching fulltime at Redlands and continued to coach until 2000.
In 2001, Miller took a hiatus from coaching and instead was teaching biology at a high school in Southern California.
It was then that a friend of his, who was a coach of a competing team when Miller was coaching at Redlands, reached out to him about a job with the Toronto Argonauts.
“It was a big decision financially,” he said. “It was a good decision.”
Without little ones running around the house, the decision was a little easier, Miller said.
And there was no hesitation on Maureen’s part.
“I was for it,” she said.
So in 2002, Miller got his first job in the professional ranks. He was named the offensive line coach for the Argonauts. The first year was rough as the Argonauts squeaked into the playoffs. The coach was fired before the second year and the staff was informed that their contracts wouldn’t be renewed, Miller said.
But sitting at home in Southern California, Miller got the call. The new head coach wanted to retain him as the offensive line coach. Miller returned, but to chaos. The Argonauts went bankrupt in 2003 and the franchise was in chaos, Miller said.
It was during this time that he was working with offensive coordinator and future Roughriders head coach Kent Austin.
Through all the chaos, however, Miller and the Argonauts came out on top in 2004 with a Grey Cup. A couple of years later, in 2007, Miller got the call from Austin to become the offensive coordinator for the Roughriders.
In one year, the Roughriders would give Miller his second ring. The Roughriders have a few names that American football enthusiasts might recognize. Most notably, former NCAA quarterbacks Drew Tate of Iowa, Darian Durant of North Carolina and Marcus Crandell of East Carolina are on the Saskatchewan roster.
The adjustment
The CFL is quite different from the NFL. There are many different rules, Miller said.
For one thing, the CFL game is a lot faster. Instead of four downs as in the NFL, the CFL has three downs.
The field is also a lot larger. Instead of the 100 yards Americans are accustomed to, the CFL field is 110 yards. The endzones are 20 yards deep instead of ten and the goalposts sit on the goal line in the CFL.
There are no backfield motion penalties, which is a rule adopted by the Arena Football League. This means wide receivers and runningbacks can move around in the backfield with no penalties.
There are also 12 men on the field, not 11. The 12th man on the offensive side of the ball is a receiver or runningback. On the defensive side of the ball, the 12th man can be anything, Miller said.
Fundamentally, however, the game is the same, he said. The way athletes train and the plays are very similar.
“It took a while to learn the game up here,” Miller said, “and I’m still learning the game up here.”
Training camp begins at the end of May in the CFL. The eight CFL teams play two preseason games and 18 regular season games in two divisions, East and West. The Grey Cup takes place around Thanksgiving.
A winning season
The Roughriders were underdogs coming into last year, Miller said.
They had a new coaching staff and didn’t really have any standout stars.
“We were really a team of no-names for the most part,” he said.
That underdog status didn’t stop Saskatchewan and the Roughriders rewarded the fans who follow them rabidly.
The Rough-riders finished 12-6 during the regular season and beat Winnipeg 23-19 to win the Grey Cup.
It was only the third Grey Cup in franchise history. The last championship was in 1989 when Austin was the quarterback.
Austin has since stepped down as head coach and Miller is interviewing for the head coaching job. If he returns to the Roughriders, history will be stacked against them. A team hasn’t repeated as CFL championships since Edmonton dominated in the 1980s.
Reflection
Although he didn’t plan it, his time in Canada has been “something of a treasure,” he said.
“(Coaching in Canada) isn’t something that I sat down and planned,” Miller said.
The thought of coaching in Canada hadn’t crossed his mind until a former competitor got a job in Canada.
While he was at Dickson College in North Dakota, he told his football teammates that one day he’d play professional football. He didn’t get that chance, however.
Coaching professionally has filled that void, he said. There are only 40 professional football teams in North America and the idea that he’s gotten to coach for two of them has been a big thrill, he said.
“Having the opportunity to coach professional football has really been a blessing,” Miller said.

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