NCAT Aggies quarterback comes back fast

By Rob Daniels, Greensboro News & Record

Photo: N.C. A&T quarterback Herb Miller

GREENSBORO -- Herb Miller didn't want to do anything halfway, which is why he got everything done in half the time.

"The trainer told me it was unheard of," said N.C. A&T's starting quarterback.

Miller was talking about his recovery from two torn knee ligaments and one ripped biceps tendon in four months instead of the projected eight. The comeback allowed Miller to play unabated throughout spring practice and be fully ready for Saturday's opener at Winston-Salem State, and the Aggies would like it to be a metaphor for their renaissance. There were no shortcuts for the quarterback, and there won't be any for a team that was winless in 2006. But A&T won't rule out an accelerated timetable for respectability, either.

"Sometimes you have to get pinned in a hole," linebacker Tim Shropshire said. "And then you rocket out."

With nobody else on the team to give him a legitimate fight for the job, Miller had the starting gig locked up even if he didn't take a snap until August. What was the rush? And why work like crazy to direct what was the worst offense in NCAA Division I-AA last season?

"Why? Because he wanted to," quarterbacks coach Dwike Wilson said. "It's attitude. Going 0-11 on his watch, he couldn't let his team down. That's all it was."

The debacle of last season can't fall entirely on Miller's shoulders. Wayne Campbell started at quarterback part of the season, and Miller missed the final four games after somebody backed into him in the Howard game. He had surgery the day after the Aggies lost 70-7 at Bethune-Cookman, which he watched on TV from his dorm room.

"I'm sitting there, and I can't believe what's going on," said Miller, who threw for 236 yards and ran for 138 before his injury.

Two or three sessions a day with trainer Rob Woodall brought Miller's strength up quickly. The original prognosis of an eight-month recovery was shaved to six. And then six became four.

"I knew I was going to make it in four," Miller said, "when I went into the training room and instead of going through the normal regimen, (Woodall) told me, 'We're going to go outside and run today. The way you run today is going to tell when you're going to come back.' He had me running full sprints, cutting drills and everything."

It wasn't all for show and inspiration. And the time off, Miller said, made him wiser. Now he thinks it's OK to slide or hop out of bounds as defenders are giving chase.

"In the spring game, for the first time in my career of playing quarterback, I slid," said Miller, a 6-foot-2, 180-pound sophomore from Carver. "That wowed myself. I went home, and that's all my mom and dad could talk about: getting down and getting out of bounds."

The seemingly contradictory corollary is Miller's newfound willingness to stand in the pocket and perhaps take a hit.

"He understands his value to the team is on the field and not on the sideline next to me," coach Lee Fobbs said.

Which is not to say the intensity is gone. While coaching receivers in the spring, Wilson pointed to Miller as an example of intelligent aggression.

"He's a small quarterback who understands the game," senior wideout Curtis Walls said. "He's not just an athlete. I'm exceptionally happy with how far Herb has come."

The tenor Miller established last winter helps explain why the coaches think offseason workouts have been more productive this year. If they hadn't been, you could reasonably expect pulled hamstrings or other nagging things to be accumulating about now. They're not.

It would be foolish to decree that all is well with this team. But the safe arrival of the only experienced guy at the most important position is a start.