Commentary
- Updated: March 29, 2023
Piedmont’s buy-in to its new football coach and athletics director showed in a full media center and one special-made “Miller Time” T-shirt
PIEDMONT — The guest of honor for Piedmont’s meet & greet with new head football coach and athletics director Jonathan Miller on Wednesday wore a blue Under Armour pullover, but arguably the hire’s biggest fans wore a special-made T-shirt.
Scott Young’s blue shirt said “Miller Time” in gold script on the front, “#BULLDOGFREAK” across the top of the back.
The father of senior football player Trent Young, known for living his hashtag more than wearing it, summed up the mood in the school’s media center.
“We’re very excited, and you can tell by tonight,” Scott Young said. “I was not expecting this many people.”
An estimated 200 people showed for the meet & greet, which came 16 days after Miller’s hiring to replace Steve Smith, who leaves behind five state football championships and a transformed athletics department.
Piedmont’s Bear Bryant will retire from the public-school sector with 30 years in the system and go to double-dip heaven at Westbrook Christian.
Miller, who won 100 out of 132 games at Saks, one of Piedmont’s top Calhoun County rivals during Smith’s tenure, knows he has to keep winning. That starts with the room.
Based on appearances, he’s up four touchdowns.
Wednesday’s gathering naturally included Piedmont City Schools superintendent Mike Hayes, a former Piedmont head coach whose two sons quarterbacked four of Smith’s five state-championship teams.
Piedmont principal Dr. Adam Clemons introduced his new athletics keyholder in a room that included booster club president Mike Pody, several current coaches and athletes and family members.
Miller delivered a brief speech in his usual understated way, a departure from the charismatic Smith. The room was a mullet-free zone.
That’s hardly a culture shock for a known commodity like Miller. There’s a reason why he emerged from 46 applicants and three finalists, and Piedmont people have observed it from across the field for years.
“I think we hit a home run,” Hayes said. “Our number-one priority was to get someone we knew, and somebody who knew us, and had been successful in a big way. He checks all of those boxes.”
All of that was known. What Wednesday’s gathering began to answer for Piedmont’s broader public was how “Miller Time” looks and sounds.
Saks and Piedmont are different crowds. Piedmont’s decision makers knew that, and Miller’s adjustment to his new public was their biggest question, Hayes said.
Miller will have more people interested in the program coming by to talk to him than he’s used to. By all accounts, he wasn’t just OK with that. He embraced those good problems as next-level stuff, a luxury for a coach who’s done an awful lot with less.
Miller beat his new bosses to questions with expressed desires. He wants to keep the continuity Smith established through the feeder levels. He wants to work with youth-league coaches to help keep them on page. He wants to keep the summer 7-on-7 tournament.
“We have some program things that we want to see continued no matter who the coach was, and he was agreeable to that,” Hayes said. “As a matter fact, it was at his suggestion during the second interview that he would like to keep a lot of things we’ve been doing in place because it has been successful …
“It wasn’t no demanding. It was us talking and him bringing most of that to our attention.”
That and Miller’s resume won the bosses. Now, he must win the masses, which includes his team.
He’ll have more players than he’s used to most years. That means fewer than he’s used to will play both offense and defense.
It also means more personalities around, and from different backgrounds. Meshing all of that just might be Miller’s most hidden strength to those who don’t see him work a locker room.
Kevin Bedwell saw it as a member of Miller’s Saks staff from 2014-17. The 2007 Piedmont grad and member of Smith’s staff before and since his time at Saks also knows Piedmont’s culture from the inside.
Bedwell sees Millers’ even temperament as a major plus.
“He knows how to bring a team together,” Bedwell said. “He knows how to take kids who come from different households and turn them into a family.
“He can take people who have differences and get them on the same page.”
No differences were apparent Wednesday. Miller huddled with players, decision makers, boosters and fans alike.
As Wednesday’s gathering thinned out, Miller held court with Piedmont booster club president Mike Pody and Scott Young.
“We love Coach Smith, and I wish him the best,” Scott Young said, “but we’re really excited to have Coach Miller here.”
Cover photo: New Piedmont football coach and athletics director Jonathan Miller (right) talks with Scott Young (center) and the school’s athletics booster club president, Mike Pody, during Wednesday’s meet & greet in the media center. (Photo by Joe Medley)
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