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Perspectives: Miller's feats the stuff of fall legends
Story Discussion By MARK VINSON Independent Record | Posted: Tuesday, October 6, 2009 12:35 am | (0) Comments
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Capital High's Matt Miller makes his getaway to the endzone for another touchdown during last Friday's victory over CM Russell.
Someday, years from now, the numbers will have grown exponentially. Thousands, maybe tens of thousands, will claim to have been there.
Grandparents will gather their grandchildren around a cozy fire and relate the tale of how, on one crisp, autumn evening, they witnessed a gridiron performance for the ages.
If Matt Miller had grown up in, say, Odessa, Texas - home to the Permian High School football team of "Friday Night Lights" fame - they would have named a street after him by this time. Or erected a monument in the town square in his honor.
What Miller and his Capital High teammates accomplished last Friday in a 28-26 victory is certainly worthy of such. Playing in as grand and glorious a high school football game as this city may witness for many years to come, Miller and the Bruins dared go where no Montana Class AA team had gone before, to a record 27th straight victory.
It was if the planets had aligned perfectly for coach Pat Murphy's crew. Perusing the schedule back in the warmer days of August, one noticed that the potential record-breaker would come in week six of the season against second-ranked C.M. Russell of Great Falls. That, as another staff member, pointed out, would only happen if the Bruins could get through crosstown rival Helena High a week earlier.
And so it was.
There would be no backing into football immortality on this night. No waltzing over some creampuff in a blowout. If this Capital team was to surpass the Tyler Emmert-led crew from 1999-2001, it would have to earn it.
Coach Jack Johnson's Russell squad was very much capable of bring that streak to a grinding halt. It was no doubt a topic of conversion all week in Great Falls, the flames fanned in part by a major feature printed on these pages. You can bet your bottom dollar the Rustlers boarded their bus bound and determined to put an end to the dynasty conversation as well as grab the state's No. 1 ranking for themselves.
Like Billings Skyview two weeks earlier and Helena in the game that preceded this one, Capital got an opponent's best shot. Skyview, Helena and Russell all took the field with masterfully conceived game plans and executed them to near perfection in the first half.
And, still, it wasn't enough.
As the late John Facenda, the longtime voice of NFL Films, once said: "Great teams aren't always great. They're only great when they have to be."
That could be the mantra for these Bruins. Lining up against them is like walking a tightrope across Niagara Falls or juggling sticks of dynamite. You do your absolute best, yet remain tortured by the knowledge that one false step and you're doomed.
So it was early in the second half last Friday. With his team trailing 12-7 and the win streak and No. 1 ranking in very real jeopardy, Miller exploded for an 85-yard touchdown run. It would be the first of three second-half scores he would post on the night. And, with Braden Peterson and Jacob Grover unable to get untracked and Corey Scevers misfiring more often than connecting, the Bruins needed every one of them.
Miller's 201 rushing yards - on just 15 carries - was a career best and vaulted the part-time ball carrier (he's carried just 57 times in six games) into the No. 4 spot among the state's rushing leaders.
But, as the saying goes, there are lies, damned lies and statistics. It's one thing to rack up yards in a blowout, when your team is comfortably ahead. With University of Montana head coach Booby Hauck watching from the stands, Miller did it when the game was on the line, when his team needed it, when the defense was bound and determined to stop him at all costs.
"When we're in trouble, we're going to feed our stud," Murphy said afterward.
This, you see, is the stuff of coaching genius. You have the best player on the field wearing your colors. You find a way to get him the ball. Throw it to him. Hand it to him. Let him take the snap from center himself, if necessary. But put the ball in the hands of your playmaker.
It's why Capital is 6-0, still ranked No. 1 and the streak is at 27 and counting heading to Billings to face another quality opponent on Friday.
And it's why Miller is regarded as a blue-chip recruit, the best player to come out of Montana in many years. The great ones don't just pile up statistics. They get it done when the chips are down, the pressure is on and the world is watching.
In the last three weeks - all coming against quality opponents with winning records - Miller has scored six touchdowns, all of them coming at times when the teams were separated by less than seven points.
Miller's heroics overshadowed a great performance by CMR quarterback Jake Bleskin, who threw for 246 yards and three touchdowns and didn't deserve to walk off a loser, either.
As great of a game as this surely deserves an encore. If there is any justice, perhaps these two schools can meet again on an even grander stage - in the Class AA final seven weeks from now.
Helena High, which has flown under the radar at 4-2 and given both Capital and CMR runs for their money, will have something to say about that, of course. So, too, perhaps will Skyview, Bozeman, Glacier or a number of other contenders.
The road to a fourth straight state title for Capital is filled with potholes. But what the Bruins have shown in the past three weeks is that they can take an opponent's best punch, get up off the canvas and deliver a knockout of their own.
And that's why Miller's epic performance will live in the hearts and minds of Bruin supporters for years to come.
Mark Vinson: 447-4070 or
[email protected]
Posted in Football on Tuesday, October 6, 2009 12:35 am | Tags: Capital
