For Malik Miller, sticking it out with Auburn serves as a greater metaphor for his character and leadership.
He suffered an injury three games into his true freshman season in 2016, receiving a medical redshirt for that year. That knee nagged him for a couple more years as he never quite developed into the player his 4-star rating out of Madison Academy (Madison, Ala.) presaged him to be.
“It wasn’t really hard at all,” Miller said Tuesday of staying at Auburn through the adversity. “I mean, I made a commitment to be here, so you know, at the end of the day I’m here to do what’s best for the team, whatever they ask me to do. I only know how to go hard, so if I’m on the field, that’s what I’m going to do.
“I’m going to give my all. So it’s an adjustment to be made. It gets frustrating at times. But at the end of the day, I just want to win.”
Instead of quitting, Miller has found satisfaction and purpose helping the team in more of an intangible sense.
“I pride myself in, one, just being a kind of leader of the group, just knowing the offense in and out, helping others, like, in the room,” he said. “... I just think the experience really, and just the kind of calm mentality, just knowing what to do.”
Miller’s career at Auburn hasn’t been flashy, but it has been important to the Tigers’ success. He’s the team’s primary pass-blocker in third-down situations at the running back position. Gus Malzahn also looks the fourth-year junior’s way often in 2-minute situations as a reliable option in all aspects of those kinds of pass plays.
And he approaches that responsibility with a seriousness each week.
“It can be between winning and losing,” Miller said of protecting his quarterback. “You know, one wrong mistake, it can cost us the game. So I don't take that lightly. Protection's one of the top priorities on my list.”
A 5-foot-11 back who put on upwards of 20 pounds in the offseason to reach 235, Miller has six career touchdowns in the orange and blue off 73 carries and 19 receptions — and he said that knee is feeling just fine this year.
“I feel like I'm kind of getting a step back,” Miller said. “It's been very frustrating with the knee deal. But I don't let it get me down. I mean circumstances happen. You can't control. But what you can control is how you react to them. So at the end of the day, I just go hard. I try to get stronger every day and be me.”
Malzahn and new running backs coach Cadillac Williams will look to Miller this week — both on and off the field — as the Tigers look to replace the production of starting tailback Boobee Whitlow, who is set to miss the next four-to-six weeks with a knee injury of his own.
“He’s, you know, a vital part of the offense," Miller said of Whitlow. "But we’re a very confident group. We have confidence in everybody in the room and we all know what we bring to the table. So we know we’ve got to step up, but we’ve been ready. We’re ready for the challenge.”
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