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September 7, 2010

Former Bruins do the smart thing at UTC

By Doug Hawley Daily Citizen Correspondent

CHATTANOOGA — Northwest Whitfield’s two contributions to University of Tennessee at Chattanooga football are proven scholar-athletes.

First string offensive tackle Adam Miller and backup offensive guard Dustin Tate entered their redshirt sophomore seasons with Academic All-Southern Conference recognition from 2009.

“I just want to excel after football,” Miller said. “As a civil engineering major, I’m dealing with a lot of math and physics.”

He attributed much of his academic success to his high school days.

“I’ve taken a lot from Northwest,” he said. “I knew what I was going to do long time ago. A lot of other people in my classes (at UTC), they had never seen it.”

His academic prowess at Northwest included the highest academic average among all Bruins football players for four years.

“There were a lot of teachers at Northwest who really helped from an academic standpoint,” Tate said. “I particularly remember (Northwest defensive coordinator Josh Robinson). He taught me science. He was a great motivator.”

Miller and Tate, who plans to specialize in special education, were among a record 10 Mochas who achieved all-conference academic honors. Prior to 2009, the school had never had more than four players earn the honor in one year.

Honors go to student-athletes in their second year at the institution who have a minimum 3.2 cumulative grade point average while competing in at least 50 percent of their team’s schedule.

Miller (6-foot-4, 260 pounds) started every snap at right tackle on Saturday in UTC’s heartbreaking 42-41 opening game loss to five-time defending Southern Conference champion Appalachian State. Tate (6-5, 280) saw limited action at guard.

“They told us that we’d rotate if needed,” Miller said. “I never came out.”

When a team scores 41 points in an opener against the nation’s No. 3-ranked squad, there seems little reason for much offensive change. But Miller knows there are improvements to make.

“It was disappointing,” Miller said of the final result. “We kept shooting ourselves in the foot. We had too many mental mistakes.”

Early in the fourth quarter, the visiting Mountaineers seemed out of it, trailing 35-14. However, they did not win consecutive national championships from 2005-07 by folding their tents.

Three missed Mocs’ extra points in the game and two lost fumbles during the fourth quarter added fuel to the fire for the 15,235 fans at Finley Stadium, UTC’s second largest crowd there.

“Coming down to the wire, we had to finish the drill,” Tate said. “We didn’t get it done.”

Last year, Tate started the first two games at tackle. Miller then moved ahead of him at the same position to start the final nine games in a surprising 6-5 season. Now, Tate has been moved to left guard, although he plays some at right tackle.

“We’ve always been friends,” Tate said. “We used to be roommates. The coaches are rotating the way they think that we’ll best perform as a team.”

How will Saturday’s result affect the Mocs?

“One loss is not going to define us,” Miller said. “We have to come back next week and be mad about it.”

The road hardly gets any easier for Chattanooga this week.

On Saturday, the Mocs go to Jacksonville State, which pulled off the weekend’s biggest shocker, a 49-48 double overtime victory over Ole Miss of the mighty Southeastern Conference.

“We can’t let the one game affect us,” Tate said. “We must get ready for a very good team.”

Both Miller and Tate were key figures as seniors for coach Mike Falleur’s Northwest squad that advanced to the second round of the Class 4A state playoffs in 2007 and finished 9-3.

UTC’s Russ Huesman, who earned the Southern Conference’s Coach of the Year honor a year ago in his debut, has stressed the scholar-athlete theme from the start. He can point to Miller and Tate as prime examples of how things should be done.

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