MISHAWAKA - Penn senior Gabe Miller realized a life-long dream a few weeks back, when he received and accepted a scholarship offer to play colleeg foobtall at Nebraska.
"For the longest time my dream was to play college football as a lineman", Miller says. "I wasn't big enough. I fell in love with longsnapping."
And he turned it, into a phenomenal skill. For several years every day, Gabe Miller has spent an hour in the back yard snapping with his dad. Over and over again. His diligence paid off. Miller was recently rated as the 2nd best high school long snapper in the entire country. The latest ranking meant a scholarship to a major program was all but guaranteed. But he didn't need to think about his decision for very long.
"I knew other offers would come but nothing would be as good as Nebraska."
For Miller, the appeal of playing in the Big Ten conference for one of the marquis programs is the perfect fit.
"My parents plan on going to just about every game. Nebraska will actually be the farthest away. Everything (in the Big Ten) is nice and close."
For mom and dad, the proximity is great. For Gabe, the chance to play for the Big Red was an appeal all by itself.
"I wanted to go somewhere where I'd be competing for a championship. The Big Ten championship is in their sights, and so is a national championship. ".
And he'll be competing from the moment he arrives in Lincoln as a freshman.
"I talked to the coaches and I will be expected to come in and start as a true freshman."
As such, the Nebraska coaching staff has encouraged him to attend as many home game this coming fall as possible, to get accustomed to the atmosphere at Memorial Stadium.
Fortunately, Miller knows what to expect.
"The stadium is the focal point of the whole city", Miller says of Nebraska.
"It reminds me of home."
