Kaylon Miller was on the six yard line in the fourth quarter, blocking on a USC run play when he saw King Miller, his running back and twin brother, blow right past him.
“Run, run, go, go!” he remembers shouting as King bumped it outside and crossed the Nebraska goal line for the go-ahead touchdown that would ultimately be the game winner in the Trojans’ 21-17 Big Ten win last Saturday in Lincoln.
When King turned around in the end zone, it was his brother who was the first to greet him; the two brothers shared a moment as their facemasks clashed into each other. Both walk ons. Both finding opportunities to get on the field as redshirt freshmen — and both making the most of those opportunities.
“You owe me a burger,” King remembers Kaylon telling him.
Kaylon has been happy to see his brother succeed — King Miller was pressed into duty last month due to injuries, and he responded with big games against Michigan and Notre Dame — but he continued to wait for his moment. Then in the first quarter against the Cornhuskers, right guard Alani Noa went down with an injury. Kaylon was standing next to USC offensive line coach Zach Hanson, who turned to him.
“This is your opportunity,” Hanson told him. “Let’s go.”
It was Kaylon’s turn.
“Honestly, just a remarkable story that I’ll be able to tell when I’m older,” he said. “Obviously, everybody wants their opportunity to go and play and you just have to be ready when your number’s called on. It just so happened that mine had to be that night.
“I just knew that when I got that opportunity I was gonna make the most of it.”
And make the most of it he did. Despite taking all of his practice reps that week at center, Miller stepped in at guard and didn’t just hold it together — he elevated the o-line in a low-scoring slugfest against a tough Nebraska defense.
Allowing zero pressures on the night, Miller recorded a pass block grade of 88.2, the third-best in the Big Ten last week and the sixth-best among Power Four guards.
“Played awesome. He really did,” Trojans coach Lincoln Riley said. “He was physical, he pass pro’ed well. He was really physical in his pull game, was really sharp assignment-wise, which — I know I’ve mentioned several times — was all the more impressive because he really hadn’t been able to take a lot of practice reps at guard. Thoroughly impressed.”
While Miller still says he feels more confident snapping the ball due to the more compact nature that comes with playing center, he attributes his success at right guard to being able to rely on his teammates. The o-line, especially at guard, is a symbiotic relationship. So much of it is depending on the tackles and center for help (and vice versa), and Miller was 100% confident in his teammates next to him.
Things could’ve gone south with Miller playing for the first time in an intense road environment at Memorial Stadium. The Huskers, and the 86,529 fans in attendance, were dressed in all black. Black balloons were released by a raucous crowd each time Nebraska scored. But in between series, left tackle Elijah Paige — who made his return from a knee injury he suffered in Week 4 against Michigan State — kept Miller’s mind right.
“Just treat it like practice,” Paige said. “Obviously, that’s a pretty hostile environment. It’s one of the best environments out there. So obviously that can get to you, the noise can get to you, everything can get to you. But I kind of just tell him to focus in and act like this is a Tuesday or Wednesday practice.”
As the Trojans prepare to host Northwestern on a short week, Miller’s trying to think too much about what happened the week before; he knows opportunities can be taken away just as quickly as they’re earned. He likes to lean on a saying he tells his twin brother all the time:
“Never look back upon any situation that you’ve ever been in, just look forward because nothing that you did in the past can be taken back. You can only have your eyes in tunnel vision, forward.”
As for the burger that King still owes him?
“I ain’t get him it yet, but I got to,” King said with a laugh. “I don’t know when it is, he gonna keep asking me about it for sure, but I got him one day.”
