Relativity : As Cousin Keyshawn Did, Miller Makes Plays at Receiver for USC

It always seemed it would work out this way, since they were 12-year-olds, shagging footballs and mooching chin straps at USC practices and playing street ball at the corner of 37th and Vermont.

This football season, there’s a break in the pattern for cousins Keyshawn Johnson and Chris Miller.

They were teammates at Dorsey High, West Los Angeles Community College and, last season, at USC. Johnson now plays for the New York Jets, and Miller feels confident he’ll join him next year in the NFL.

As this season began, Miller was called “the heir apparent” to Johnson, who had 168 catches for 2,796 yards and 16 touchdowns in two seasons at USC.

But many meant Billy Miller, the long-striding sophomore from Westlake Village, who plays in the style of Johnson but is no relation.

Instead, it has been Chris Miller, the 5-foot-11, 180-pound receiver who has contributed Keyshawn-like plays for the Trojan offense, keeping USC big-receiver plays all in the family.

He has seven catches for 238 yards, a 34-yard average per reception, in USC’s 1-1 start, has a touchdown and has a blocked punt that resulted in another touchdown.

His 155 receiving yards, in three catches, Saturday in a 55-3 victory over Illinois marked his third consecutive game setting a personal best for yardage. He had 50 yards in the Rose Bowl game last January and 83 in the season opener against Penn State.

Miller scored on an 84-yard pass play from Brad Otton in the first quarter against Illinois and later made a juggling catch after he broke free of deep coverage for a 58-yard gain.

There are many guys who can run and catch, but two plays in the Illinois game, USC coaches say, set Miller apart.

One was a first-quarter reach-back block of an Illinois punt that teammate Prentice Hill scooped up and returned 19 yards for a score and a 14-3 USC lead.

The other came on the next USC series, a workmanlike block on Illinois’ left cornerback, freeing fullback Marvin Powell III for an easy 13-yard touchdown reception.

USC receivers coach Mike Sanford has seen enough. After two games, he projects Miller into the NFL.

“There’s no question in my mind he can play at the next level,” he said.

“He’s a special player. He does everything we ask, including blocking kicks and returning kicks. If we asked him to play on our kickoff coverage team, he’d not only do it, he’d make tackles.”

Chris Miller played quietly alongside Johnson last season and caught 21 passes for 215 yards.

“Chris had this kind of ability all along; he hasn’t surprised me at all,” Sanford said. “And he’ll have more games like the last two.”

Offensive coordinator Mike Riley said of Miller, “He has great speed, but he uses it very effectively. He can show you a change of pace, and he can shift gears really fast.”

Miller was largely unrecruited in junior college.

“We recruited him because Keyshawn insisted on it,” Sanford said, only partly joking.

“It’s hard for us to see JC games during the season, so we got some video on him, and based on what we saw, we offered.”

Said Miller: “I’d had letters from LSU and Fresno State, but as soon as I heard from SC, that was it. That’s where I wanted to be.”

He arrived for 1995 spring football as an all-business kind of player.

“I remember when he came in he was a very serious guy,” Coach John Robinson said.

“He has a great work ethic. Anything we ask him to do, he does it and does it well.”

Including playing in the long shadow of his cousin.

“When he was a senior here, Keyshawn caught maybe 30 balls and Chris maybe 20,” said Dorsey High Coach Paul Knox.

“Keyshawn transferred in here for his senior year and wasn’t all that familiar with our offense. One of Chris’ jobs was to make sure Keyshawn was lined up right.

“We’ve had some great football players at Dorsey, but I’m more proud of what Chris has done than anyone I ever coached. He made himself into an outstanding player. When I first saw him, on the freshman team, he was maybe 5-4 and had no speed.

“He just worked hard on everything. He even figured out how to run faster. He became an outstanding blocker. And he’s smart, he knows where everyone in the offense is supposed to be.”

Only now, Miller says, after playing a secondary roll to his famous cousin, does he feel like a “go-to” guy.

“I learned a lot from Keyshawn, particularly about how to read film,” Miller said.

“When I came to SC, I was impressed by how much Keyshawn studied film of secondaries, looking for keys on whether DBs would play him tight or drop back. So now I make video copies and take them home to study.”

Different types, different personalities.

Johnson is tall and lean, Miller shorter and more muscled.

Johnson talked a great game; Miller is quiet, pondering questions before carefully answering.

He concedes big plays might be harder to come by now, after his first two games.

“It’ll be a little more difficult now,” he said, referring to Saturday’s Pacific 10 opener against Oregon State in the Coliseum.

Miller has something in common with his quarterback. Both interrupted their football careers for religious missions.

Otton, a Mormon, spent most of his two-year mission in Italy in 1991-92, trying to convert Italian Catholics. He says he had one success, a Sicilian teenager.

Miller, a Muslim, spent his two-year mission in San Francisco, Detroit and Portland, Ore., after graduating from Dorsey. He traveled with a group of about 20, staying with Muslim families. He says he converted “about 50” to Islam.

As for Keyshawn, he says he talks to his cousin several times a week.

“He’s been complaining the Jets aren’t getting the ball to him enough,” he said, laughing.

“Same old Keyshawn. He gets to start this week, so he’s much happier now.”