STATESBORO – Savannah’s Brian Miller had to know the nicknames would come. He’s 24 and playing college football at Georgia Southern.
“They call me ‘old man.’ They call me a lot of things,” Miller, a 2017 Memorial Day School graduate, said following an Eagles spring practice on April 11.
Miller is going into his seventh season next fall with the Eagles. The left tackle’s 
teammate on the offensive line, Khalil Crowder, is going into his sixth year.
“They try to call both of us old,” Miller said. “(Crowder) likes when I’m there because he’s like, ‘He’s older than me.’ ”
Miller, who had a birthday in February, is the oldest player on the team. Sixth-year players became more prevalent after the NCAA granted an extra year of eligibility, a “COVID year,” to student-athletes during the pandemic.
Seventh-year players are less common, but Georgia Southern had one in 2022 in standout linebacker Todd Bradley-Glenn, “TBG” for short.
“I’m the new TBG,” Miller said with a smile.
The journey to a seventh (and final) season, granted by a medical hardship waiver, comes with a less pleasant history.
Miller redshirted his first season in 2017, when at the coaches’ request, he converted from a defensive lineman to the offensive side to help the team. Miller (now 6-foot-3 and 305 pounds) has since moved along the line from right to left tackle.
He missed the entire 2019 season after suffering a noncontact injury in which he had a break in his right hip along with a dislocation. It happened at a preseason practice when Miller was casually jogging and his knee braces got caught together.
There was speculation that he might never play football again. After surgery, Miller went through physical rehabilitation but had to withdraw from school because he was unable to attend the required in-person classes.
“That whole semester I wasn’t in school because I couldn’t walk for three months,” said Miller, who didn’t have a full selection of remote classes.
He worked to get back to football and to get back on track academically through summer classes, graduating on time in the spring of 2021 with a degree in interdisciplinary studies with a minor in psychology.
“It interested me to pick people’s brains and understand what’s going through their heads,” said Miller, who is pursuing a second degree in business management. “It kind of helps, too, using that out here (on the football field). Seeing if a defender’s tired, what he could be thinking -- especially watching film and knowing what he does.”
Miller might use a bit of reverse psychology on players across the line.
“It doesn’t have to be words,” he said. “You could use a bunch of actions, like different things you do with your hands that might throw them off. They might think you’re doing something but you’re actually trying to reverse it.”
Miller was introduced to the subject not through coaches but his wife, Michelle, who majors in psychology and graduates in May.
They married on April 20, 2018.
“It’s been working out ever since,” said Brian Miller, who was planning a fifth-year anniversary celebration around classes and football practice that day. “We’re getting the job done. Obviously, we don’t see much of each other, especially during football season. But we make it work. We find time to spend time with each other.”
Miller became a starter in 2018 and regained a starting spot in 2020, when he was selected to the All-Sun Belt Conference second team by Pro Football Focus. He has become more of a leader, giving pointers to those he calls “young guys” about life on and off the field, even relationship advice.
He has knowledge to share as a standout student-athlete, and he’s excited to be back playing a second season under head coach Clay Helton and his staff, and being in “the brotherhood” with his football family of teammates.
As far as professional football prospects, he said, “If I get the chance, OK. If I don’t, I’m going to move on with my life. I’m married so I’ve got to provide for my family.”
PHOTO CREDITS: AJ Henderson/Georgia Southern Athletics & Georgia Southern Athletics
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