One of the many additions to the Arizona football team that head coach Brent Brennan brought in was new tight ends coach Josh Miller.
Miller comes with new offensive coordinator Seth Doege from Marshall, but the two coaches have history far beyond their time at Marshall.
“My relationship with Coach Doege goes all the way back to 2016,” said Miller. “I was an assistant coach at my alma mater, the University of St Francis, Fort Wayne, Indiana.”
Coming along with Doege’s uptempo offensive scheme is an extreme level of trust from Miller.
“There’s very few guys in which you risk your family’s livelihood for, he’s that for me,” Miller said. “I believe in him wholeheartedly and he is a perfectionist, right? So if he doesn’t have a solution, he’s going to find a solution.”
Within the offensive scheme and philosophy, Miller has a simple mindset for how he wants his tight ends to play.
“Our motto is ‘Choose violence,’ so in everything that we’re doing we’re going to be aggressively violent,” said Miller. “That’s going to be aggressive with our run pass, that’s going to be aggressive with our blocking, that’s going to be aggressive with attacking the football in the air.”
However, Miller doesn’t just want this on the field. He wants his players to apply this mindset in everything they do. From the classrooms, to their relationships, to their preparation.
“As long as that mentality is on point, they’ll be fine,” Miller said. “That’s going to allow us to find a W on Saturdays.”
Miller embraces the challenges that the tight end position brings, and talked about how this is almost a winless position.
“They’re not supposed to win any matchups on paper, right?” said Miller. “They’re not supposed to block a d-end. They’re not supposed to be able to run past the safety.”
Two players that Miller wants to win more matchups than not have two very different playing styles. Starting with redshirt senior tight end Sam Olson.
Olson saw a lot of action towards the end of last season, which included a 23-yard touchdown catch against West Virginia. He also came from San Jose State with Brennan last year.
“He’s kind of like a father figure to me, and to have a head coach be that kind of figure I think it’s really special,” Olson said about Brennan.
Another figure that Olson is drawn to is NFL tight end George Kittle, who some consider to be the best tight end in the NFL right now.
“You can tell he kind of plays with a chip on his shoulder,” Olson said. “He’s kind of nasty, especially in the run game. I feel like I kind of have that savviness that he has to get open as well, but I just want to try and implement what he does in the run game into my game.”
While Kittle may be the best tight end right now, one of the best to ever play the position just happens to be a former Wildcat in Rob Gronkowski.
Gronkowski wore number 87 in the NFL. Might that be the reason why redshirt junior tight end Tyler Powell wears that same number now?
“I think 87 is just like a really cool tight end number, and that’s what I stuck with,” said Powell. “I started in high school wearing number 87 and that’s just what I’ve stuck with through college.”
Regardless of what goes behind the jersey number decision, Powell has started to gain the attention of his coach.
“I’ve been very pleased with his growth and development,” said Miller. “I feel like he’s really dug into what I’ve been selling, and you see the dividends paying out in the field.”
It’s not just praise from the coaches that Powell is receiving. The praise is also coming from his own teammates.
“He’s really tall, long arms, thick lower half, and that helps him be dominant in the run game, and also really explosive running routes,” Olson said.
While Powell may have not had many opportunities through his first three years, he has used that time to mold his craft to what he has needed it to be.
This will be Powell’s third tight end coach, but he has taken a little bit of everything from each coach.
“I think every coach has their different techniques, and different ways of teaching,” Powell said. “Being able to pick the brains of multiple different coaches and add it to my game. I feel like it’s really helped me develop on the field.”
Both tight ends will have more chances to show their capabilities on the field before the spring showcase in two weeks.
Regardless of who runs with the “1’s” or even who starts in the fall, Olson and Powell will be needed for the offense to be successful this year.