When Wyatt Miller was asked at the UCF’s football team’s media day last week if he still had to help out on his family’s blueberry farm whenever he went back home to Georgia, the big offensive lineman just laughed.
He remembered the Orlando Sentinel headline in 2013 when he committed to UCF out of Douglas (Ga.) Coffee High. It read, “Knights land Georgia blueberry picker, offensive tackle Wyatt Miller.”
“Yeah, I got a lot of laughs out of that article,” said Miller, now a 6-foot-4, 298-pound redshirt-junior who returns this season as UCF’s starting right tackle, where he started 13 games a year ago.
“Georgia blueberry picker. … I’ve heard that one a couple of times.”
When he was younger, he’d pick blueberries by hand and he said he got to the point where he could fill a six-pound bucket in about 10 to 15 minutes. That’s not necessary any more. The farm, which was about 12 acres when Miller was in high school, has gotten even bigger now and his father, Randy Miller, hires a large crew to help with the harvest these days.
“I don’t have to pick any more. When I go home, I try to help my dad, but he’s got it under control. He’s a hard worker and they got a lot of guys that help … I don’t even know how many guys come in to help pick, but it’s unreal,” Miller said.
“He does a really good job with that. That’s his passion. He loves it and so I hope one day I’m passionate enough about what I do that I love it as much as he does.”
Miller said it’s been pretty amazing to watch the farm grow over the years.
“It’s unreal. It started out with just three acres in front of our house and then it went to 10 to 15 and now it’s a 20 and still growing,” he said. “It’s cool to get to see him do something he loves and see it grow and see it get better and better each year.”
The farm has somewhat out-grown Wyatt’s helping hand, but he still tries to pitch in a bit when he does come home to visit.
“He doesn’t make me help him. … Last couple of times I came home, he was either spreading fertilizer or spraying,” Miller said. “I usually go out there and hang out with him or get on the tractor for a little bit, but he doesn’t make me do too much.”
Miller has come to appreciate the Central Florida rain, the daily consistency of which he said would be nice to be able to count on back in Georgia.
“We need some of that back home,” Miller said. “You can count on it. … I had a class at 4’oclock this whole summer and you could bet your bottom dollar it was going to rain, so you better have an umbrella or you were gonna get wet, that’s for sure.”
He’s grown as one of the leaders of the UCF offensive line and he points to the overall continuity of the team as one of the bright spots heading into the 2017 season.
“The biggest difference I see between this year and last year is cohesion. We’re playing together as an offense really well and at different positions too. It’s not just the offensive line growing together,” said Miller, who was an American Athletic Conference All-Academic Team selection last year. “It’s the whole offense and the whole defense, too. We’re kind of getting to each other a lot better.
“Before, I could care less about the defense, but what Coach [Scott] Frost is trying to teach us is that the closer we grow and the more we play together, the better we’re going to be. … We’re honing in on that.”
