Shawn Miller started his high school career at one powerhouse and moved over to another one. Now, he has a top five.
The three-star receiver, who originally played at Scottsdale (Ariz.) Saguaro but is now at Bradenton (Fla.) IMG, announced recently that Arizona, Illinois, Indiana, Miami and West Virginia made the cut.
In today’s Ranking The Contenders, we look at Miller’s five front-runners and put them in order of likelihood where he will commit.
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1. ARIZONA
Miller has said he’s looking for the best fit and he’s looking at programs all over the country but the former Saguaro standout also said the preference would be to play closer to home.
The new coaching staff in Tucson has been aggressively recruiting top targets and Miller is someone who could make an immediate impact with the Wildcats. This makes sense in a lot of ways since the three-star receiver could return to play closer to home plus be an important part of new coach Jedd Fisch’s Arizona offense from early on.
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2. WEST VIRGINIA
The Mountaineers have definitely invested a lot of time and energy in Miller and West Virginia is in a good spot to land the three-star receiver because there is mutual interest. Miller has taken multiple virtual visits to Morgantown and the coaching staff has outlined their plan of how they would utilize Miller in the offense.
The only question remains whether someone who is from Arizona and is now playing in Florida is ready to make the leap to Morgantown.
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3. INDIANA
There is one unique connection here as tight ends coach Kevin Wright used to be the head coach at IMG but it was before Miller moved to the school. It will be interesting to see if that plays a big role in Miller’s thinking as it could be a bond.
On top of that, the Hoosiers have traditionally recruited Florida well and Miller has the ability to contribute early. Miller could take notice that Indiana spread the ball around quite well this past season.
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4. ILLINOIS
First-year coach Bret Bielema has taken a personal hand in recruiting Miller and it would be a big, early splash to land a receiver from IMG in his first full recruiting class. But it might be considered a long shot at this point.
Miller sees an opportunity to make an early impact in Champaign. The new football facilities are intriguing and playing for Bielema could make it interesting, but there are some issues as well. Some programs seem to have a bigger edge right now and just how much this new Illinois team is going to be throwing the ball is yet to be determined.
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5. MIAMI
There are some who believe Miami could become a major contender in Miller’s recruitment but probably only if the Hurricanes strike out on some bigger wide receiver targets in the coming months. At this juncture, Miller is probably not at the top of the wide receiver board so it’s unlikely that the Hurricanes would be his landing spot if the three-star receiver wants to commit soon.
