TCA’s Miller able to play multiple football positions

Ever since he was in third grade, Hank Miller has loved the game of football and looked forward to the opportunity to play himself.

He’s come up through the youth and middle school ranks at Trinity Christian and started at middle linebacker as a freshman in 2022.

Now a junior, Miller is still starting at middle linebacker, but the position has changed with the program.

“My freshman year when [former TCA coach Blake Butler] was still here, we mainly ran a 3-4 defense,” Miller said. “Now we run a four-man front – a 4-2-5 that sometimes looks like a 4-3.”

That change came when current head coach Darren Bowling arrived, and Bowling quickly learned to rely on Miller to lead the defense on the field.

“Depending on how many backs [the opposing offense] has before the snap, that’s what determines what calls I need to make for everybody to line up,” Miller said. “But the good thing for me after the snap is the B gaps in the line are the only ones I have to worry about most of the time, so that’s less for me to think about before and after the snap.”

Miller gets his football abilities – mental and physical – almost genetically. His grandfather is former North Side head coach Johnny Williams. His cousin – also named Johnny Williams – was an effective running back for Jackson Christian about a decade ago. His cousin-in-law is former TCA assistant coach Derek Carr, who was a talented quarterback at McKenzie before breaking passing records at UT Martin as a four-year starter. He got into coaching after college and is in his first year leading the program at Lexington now.

“So there’s a lot of football talk at family gatherings,” Miller said.

Miller’s love and knowledge of the game enables him to feel like if he’s needed to play any position on the field, he can do so.

“I’m not saying I would do a good job at every position, but I know what the objective is for each position and what to do to try to get there,” Miller said.

That got tested a couple of weeks ago as the Lions prepared for their season-opener at Chester County.

One of the starters on the offensive line was going to have to sit out for two quarters, and the backup told Bowling on Aug. 19 – the Monday of Week 1 of the season – that he was quitting the team.

“So Coach Bowling came up to me that Monday and asked if I thought I could play center and if I wanted to,” Miller said. “I was like ‘Sure.’

“I didn’t know at the time how long I’d be playing. At the time, I assumed all season.”

Miller also gets reps on offense as a running back.

So the work began that day to prepare Miller for 30 minutes lining up front and center for the offense and snapping the ball to quarterback Cooper Vailes.

TCA typically runs its offense out of a shotgun formation, so work was needed to ensure Miller could adequately snap the ball to Vailes.

“I got plenty of reps during practice, and then I’d stay around for a little while after and get a few more reps,” Miller said.

The reps were apparently enough to give Vailes consistent snaps throughout the first half at Chester County as the Lions tried to move the ball consistently against the Class 4A school in Henderson.

After having a road trip of about 2.5 hours last week, the Lions are making up for it with a road trip of about 2.5 minutes to University School of Jackson. Miller was in first grade the last time TCA beat the Bruins. They came close last year but their comeback attempt fell short.

“They’re a good team that’s scoring a lot of points,” Miller said. “So all 11 of us on the field for defense has got to be ready to play our best on every play or they’ve shown they can take it for a score on any given play.

“But hopefully we’ll be ready for what they bring.”

Brandon Shields, brandon@jacksonpost.news