Don't blame yourself if you wouldn't recognize Mark Miller walking around grounds. In fact, don't blame yourself if you're not even quite sure just who Mark Miller is. But whether you know Miller or not, it's all fine by him.
"A lot of people don't know who Mark Miller is out there on campus," Miller said at Virginia's weekly press conference Tuesday. "You put the pads on and look so much bigger. Sometimes that's nice. I like being the normal guy out there. I don't want to draw too much attention to myself."
To clarify, Miller is a senior inside linebacker for the Virginia football team who started his first game at linebacker just two and half weeks ago against Western Michigan. He also happens to be Ahmad Brooks' back-up. Since walking on to the team his first year, Miller has never logged significant playing time at linebacker because of the tremendous depth at the position. For the past two seasons, Miller has been stuck behind Brooks, a returning First Team All-American who led the team in tackles in 2004 with 90 and was second with eight sacks. Brooks underwent off-season knee surgery last spring, and, although he has reportedly practiced with the team, he has not yet suited up to play and didn't travel with the team to Syracuse last weekend. Virginia coach Al Groh refuses to comment on Brooks' status.
With the logjam at linebacker, Miller has spent most of his time at Virginia with the special teams unit where he has been a valuable contributor on punt and kickoff coverage.
At 6 feet, 222 pounds, Miller doesn't physically fit the inside linebacker prototype, but that hasn't stopped him from stepping up in each of Virginia's first two games this season. He had two tackles against Western Michigan, but last Saturday against Syracuse, Miller had a career-high seven tackles. His last tackle, which resulted in a one-yard loss for Syracuse, came on a key third-down situation late in the game with the Orange threatening inside Virginia's 10-yard line. On the play, Syracuse quarterback Perry Patterson handed the ball off to running back Damien Rhodes, who, after taking the hand off, broke right in a futile attempt to avoid a hard-closing Miller, who wrapped him up to bring up fourth down. Syracuse proceeded to kick the game-tying field goal on the next play, but, thanks to Miller's tackle, Virginia was only tied instead of trailing by four.
Following his performance, Miller earned nothing but praise from Groh.
"Mark did a real good job of kind of sizing up [Syracuse's run offense] throughout the preparation," Groh said. "He knew what his role was going to be, what his job was going to be."
Groh added that Syracuse was Miller's first test.
"Basically, up to this point, he's been a pass defender and a special teams player," the coach said. "This was his first significant test to [stopping the run], and I think he can be pretty pleased with the results."
Born and raised in Birmingham, Ala., Miller, who is projected to start again this Saturday when Virginia hosts Duke University at 3:30 p.m., is only four tackles shy of matching his 2004 total of 13. But individual statistics aren't something he's particularly worried about.
"Being able to help this team -- I'm just so thankful for that," Miller said. "But I also have a huge challenge, and I want to do as much as I can to meet the challenge."
Should he continue to meet that challenge as he has so far, Mark Miller won't go unnoticed for much longer.
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