By: Daniel Hersh
EVANSTON, Ill. -- Northwestern men's soccer head coach Tim Lenahan owns the trademark to the phrase "Earn swagger."
"[It] means high levels of confidence and high levels of humility," Lenahan, the head soccer coach, said. "Tyler is in that earn swagger area."
Senior goalkeeper Tyler Miller is one of the best, if not the best, goalies in the history of Northwestern soccer. He certainly has the stats to prove it. He's had a dominant career, setting the school records in career shutouts and threatening in career GAA (.79) and saves (210). His key to success: communication.
"Communication is huge because I organize [the defense] all the time, a full 90 minutes," Miller said. "That's how I mentally stay in the game. There will be fans that try to distract me by calling my name or making weird noises, and that's when I step up my communication because that helps me focus on the game and not hear the distractions."
But, that side of Miller -- the one that constantly yells and communicates with his defense -- is much different from the off-the-field Tyler.
"I'm a relatively quiet kid off the field," Miller said. "A lot of people, when they see me on the field for the first time, are shocked by how much I talk and how loud I am."
Miller grew up with two older brothers, Jason and Kyle, often following their lead in life and in sports. When Kyle, who is now 25 and played soccer at Holy Cross, went on recruiting visits, Tyler would tag along -- getting his first tastes of the collegiate game and coaches.
Tyler had all the physical tools to becoming a great goalkeeper. He was a tall, athletic -- he also played basketball, baseball, tennis and even the occasional ice hockey when the pond near his home in New Jersey froze over -- and extremely coordinated. He also had all the ambition that a successful athlete needs, describing himself as a combination of Jason, the smart brother, and Kyle, the competitive one.
Even when he was just a kid, he wanted to become a professional soccer player. And he had all the ability to do that.
He only lacked one thing.
"There were a lot of times where I struggled with my confidence," he said. "I didn't think I was going to be a good pro. I didn't think I was going to make it to the professional game."
Despite fighting it, Tyler couldn't help but have his confidence keep shooting him in the foot. He suffered one of the few setbacks of his wildly successful collegiate career when he was invited to the U-18 National Team camp before a trip to Israel.
"I was playing really well the first days of the camp," Miller recalled. "Then we played a game and I had one bad play in that game. The following few days, I didn't play well at all, and I was still thinking about the game and how I missed this opportunity."
The goalie who was selected to go on that trip ahead of Tyler: Andrew Wolverton, the current goalkeeper for the Big Ten-leading Penn State Nittany Lions, who visit Lakeside Field on Sunday, Nov. 2 for Northwestern's Senior Day, during which Miller will be recognized along with his classmates as one of the most accomplished groups in school history.
But that crisis of confidence all changed when he met Lenahan.
"The confidence he showed in me allowed me to be confident in my own ability," Miller said. "And that as a person allowed me to look at things differently, approach people differently."
Lenahan's confidence in Miller led him to be the man and player he is today. On the field, Miller has shed his shy persona in favor of the confident, loud, future professional soccer player.
"I don't think confidence is an issue with Tyler," Lenahan said. "It's almost the opposite. You've got to keep him grounded."
Even if Miller might not want to talk much about his accolades, his numbers speak louder than he could ever brag. He currently has 210 saves in his career, sixth-best in Northwestern's history, and owns the school record for career shutouts with 35. Incredibly, all four of his seasons with the Wildcats rank among the Top-5 for shutouts in a single season. His current goals-against-average in 2014 is 0.53, which would give him the second-best single season mark in school history.
He played a huge part in winning the first Big Ten title as a freshman -- when he stopped several of Indiana's penalty kicks -- in 2011 and then repeating in 2012.
His soccer career has taken him to some crazy places. He's gone from the kid who just wanted to beat his brothers at something to playing in the Olympic Development Program to training with Borussia Dortmund's İlkay Gündoğan and Marcel Schmelzer in Germany.
"We were playing this game where it's one touch everywhere," Miller said. "So I jump in there. Schmelzer is standing right next to me, and I take two touches and he screams at me and says, `One touch!' in the best English he could possibly do. I was like, `I'm sorry! I'm sorry!'"
Tyler Miller has a lot of stuff on his mind. He graduates after this quarter, the MLS Combine is in January and the MLS draft is just days after that. Until then, he's only concerned on this season and not sweating what happens after.
"I'd really love it if this year we knew we were going to be in the tournament and didn't have to nervously sit in that room and hope our name comes up," he said. "I'm hoping we can continue to play well and get an automatic bid."
So as Tyler plays his last games in a Northwestern uniform, he'll retire from the collegiate game as the most decorated Wildcat goalkeeper of all time.
"It's hard to judge for a goalie because you have so many other factors," he said. "I've had a great defense all during my time here. A lot of credit has to go to them too because they've helped me throughout these four years. There have been times where I didn't have my sharpest game, but the defense played great. Even though I wasn't on par, they didn't give me opportunities where I could mess up."
With the help of his teammates, Tyler Miller has earned plenty of swagger over the last four years wearing purple for Northwestern.
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