Christian Miller was one of the first recruits to pledge a commitment to the Florida Gators this year but it turned out to be a commitment he wasn’t ready to stick to. Miller decommitted from Florida back in May and he spoke with Gator Country today about why he made that decision.
“I just wanted to take my visits and get to see other places that I couldn’t really see before,” Miller said. “In order to do that I had to decommit, it really wasn’t a choice. Teams stop recruiting you when you commit for the most part. It’s just something I had to do.”
For the most part, Will Muschamp and his staff haven’t had an issue with committed player taking visits to other schools. Miller said the staff didn’t have an issue with him taking other visits, but other schools stopped calling after he committed making it hard for him to explore his options.
“I planned on just staying committed and taking visits anyway because I don’t think the Florida coaches mind, but it’s just a lot of people stopped recruiting me,” Miller said. “In order to kind of get to see other places, it’s something I had to do.”
Since opening his recruitment back up, things have really picked up for the athletic outside linebacker. He visited Georgia right before heading out to The Opening.
“It went really good, it was really nice,” Miller said of his time in Athens. “They run a 3-4, they showed me how they would use me. I already knew how I would be used, kind of playing that SAM position like Jarvis [Jones].”
That is a very similar role that Florida has told Miller they would use him in at in the Gator defense.
“SAM LB mainly and possibly BUCK. Really just SAM and in nickel packages, I could slide down into kind of a rush end.”
I asked Miller what schools were standing out to him and he said there are five schools that he is heavily considering at the moment. Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee and UCLA made the cut.
While the SEC schools made sense, I asked Miller how a west coast school like UCLA made it into the mix.
“They have a really good 3-4 that they run,” Miller said of UCLA. “Their coaches are really experienced and UCLA is in California so that would be a nice place to live, nice weather and stuff. It’s just something that I want to look into.”
Miller said he will take all five of his official visits and will have open eyes and ears while on those trips. Miller will also make a visit down to Florida in July, but he isn’t sure if he will attend Friday Night Lights.
Miller’s father told Gatorcountry.com that he personally really likes Florida, but that Christian will make the best decision for him and his family.
Quotes by Nick de la Torre