Call Me Jamir! : Learning to Like Your Name

UCLA linebacker Jamir Miller detested his name when he was growing up.

“When I was younger I didn’t really like my name because it was different and a lot of people couldn’t pronounce it,” Miller said. “They mess it up and say ‘Jamal’ and I’d go, ‘No, it’s Jamir .’

“I was in the fourth or fifth grade and I’d come home and say, ‘Mom I hate my name because no one can pronounce it.’ She told me not to worry, that I’d understand it when I grew older.

“I wanted to change my name to something like John. I wish my mother had named me something normal. But I decided to stick with it because that’s my identity. And now I’m glad she didn’t name me something normal.”

Miller’s full name is Jamir Malik (pronounced jah-MEER mah--LEK). It means royal warrior in Swahili.

A 6-foot-4, 233-pound sophomore, Miller has played like a warrior in helping No. 11 UCLA win its first two games.

A pass rusher in the mold of Kansas City Chief linebacker Derrick Thomas, Miller has a team-high three sacks for UCLA’s defense, which has allowed 24 points, the fewest the Bruins have given after two games up since 1978, when they gave up seven. UCLA defensive coordinator Bob Field said Miller might be the most talented Bruin linebacker since Carnell Lake, who plays for the Pittsburgh Steelers.

“Jamir has good speed, but Carnell Lake had phenomenal speed,” Field said. “But Jamir is much bigger than Carnell Lake, and I think that Jamir will develop into an outstanding player.”

After making his first college start in the Bruins’ 37-14 season-opening win over Cal State Fullerton, Miller had three sacks and batted down a pass in UCLA’s 17-10 win over Brigham Young.

UCLA, which neutralized BYU quarterbacks John Walsh and Steve Clements last week, faces a different challenge this week-- San Diego State tailback Marshall Faulk, who has rushed for 519 yards and six touchdowns in two games. UCLA’s defense, which was ranked eighth in the nation against the run last season, was the last team to hold Faulk to less than 100 yards. Faulk gained only 79 yards in 15 carries in a 37-12 loss to the Bruins last season in San Diego.

“Last year Faulk got knocked out of the game and couldn’t really play at 100%,” Miller said. “Not really wishing any bad fortune on him this game, but in order to keep him under 100 yards in this game we’re either going to have knock him out of the game or get in his head. You know, get him out of his game to where he’s tiptoeing because you’re just coming in and ‘bang, bang, bang,’ every time he touches the ball.

“They’re going to give him the ball 28 or 30 times a game, so our game plan will be to gang tackle, bang him up and just punish him. And maybe that can get him out of his game. We feel that he won’t run rampant on us as a defensive unit.”

Miller ran rampant as a kid.

He was into more mischief than Bart Simpson when he was growing up in East Oakland.

“I wanted to do what I wanted to do when I wanted to do it,” Miller said. “I was just hardheaded.”

Reared by his mother, Rhonda Harvey, after his parents divorced when he was very young, Miller gave his mother a lot of grief.

Miller, who said he learned to drive at 10, began taking his mother’s car without permission when he was 14. He’d wait until she went to sleep and then he’d drive off.

“The thing I remember the most was when I got busted for stealing my mom’s car,” Miller said. “I’d taken the car out a couple times at night and I’d go over to my buddy’s house and we’d go pick up girls. I’d done it so many times I thought I could get away with it easily.”

But his mother caught him.

“I thought she was sleeping when I left, but I guess she heard the car start,” he said. “I came back 1 1/2 hours later and I thought she was still sleeping, but she came into my room and asked me where I’d been.”

Miller was grounded for six months.

“That was the worst feeling I ever had in my life,” Miller said. “My mom trusted me and left her keys out and I stole them.”

Miller was expelled from the Oakland school district for fighting in the eighth grade.

“I was just being a knucklehead and rebelling,” Miller said. “That was a time in my life where I didn’t know what I wanted, so I tried everything. I was getting good grades, but I’d get suspended from school every week for fighting and cussing teachers.”

His mother gave him two choices--enroll at an all-boys Catholic high school or attend nearby El Cerrito High. He opted to attend El Cerrito, where he had no friends.

Miller went out for the football team to make friends.

“I didn’t go out for football to play, because I had never played football before,” Miller said. “I never figured I’d get a scholarship.”

Football offered him the chance to vent his aggression.

“In a way football kept me sane,” Miller said. “I’m not saying I’m a very aggressive person toward others, but the discipline part of football has helped me to learn when to talk it out or when to slug it out.”

Miller had 367 unassisted tackles, 32 sacks, three interceptions, six fumble recoveries and 22 forced fumbles in his high school career.

“I learned to love defense because I found out that I was too aggressive to play offense,” Miller said. “In defense I can basically do what I want.”

Miller chose UCLA because he wanted to leave home.

“I needed to get away from my friends and the people I knew and start fresh,” Miller said. “I needed to grow up.”

The only true freshman who played on UCLA’s defense last season, Miller was used primarily as a pass rusher in the Bruins’ nickel defense. Miller had five sacks, tied for the team lead with linebacker Arnold Ale, and was named the Bruins’ outstanding rookie defender.

While Miller had no trouble making the transition from high school to college football, he had trouble making the transition in the classroom. On academic probation with a less than a 2.0 grade-point average in his first quarter at UCLA, Miller said he raised his grade-point average to 3.0 last spring.

“I was on the verge of getting kicked out,” Miller said. “At El Cerrito I didn’t study or go to class. If I did go to class, I didn’t pay attention, but I still got B’s and A’s. But I came here and I had to study. I learned that I couldn’t cram at the end and expect to get a good grade. I guess it was all the stuff that the average freshman goes through.”

It’s all a part of growing up.