Husker Flashback: Barron Miles

[Blackshirt]

What a gamer this guy was....

 

Published Saturday

October 9, 2004

 

Husker Flashback: Miles was an all-time great, McBride says

 

BY DOUG THOMAS

 

WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER

 

You might think beating Miami in Miami to give Nebraska its first national title in 23 years was Barron Miles' career highlight as a Husker.

 

It wasn't. Instead it was the painful 18-16 loss to Florida State a year earlier in the January 1994 Orange Bowl. The Huskers entered the game with six straight bowl defeats and were 171/2-point underdogs. But they led 16-15 until an FSU field goal with 21 seconds left.

 

Afterward, Miles said, Florida State fans came down to the field to congratulate Husker players and tell them the Seminoles got lucky.

 

"Just to hear them finally bow down and give us respect," Miles said, "that was more than winning the national championship."

 

Today Miles is a 32-year-old defensive back and special teams ace with the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League. He made the East Division all-star team in 1999, 2000, 2002 and 2003. He's starting at free safety this year for the Alouettes, who take a 12-2 record into Monday's game with the Edmonton Eskimos.

 

Ten years ago Miles was an All-Big Eight cornerback for the 1994 Huskers, who steamrolled to a 13-0 record and a come-from-behind 24-17 win over Miami in the Orange Bowl.

 

Miles, all of 5-foot-8 and 165 pounds, played a huge role in the 1993 and '94 Huskers' drive to national title games. They had switched to an attacking defense with heavy blitzing, which left it up to Miles and fellow cornerback Tyrone Williams to cover the opponent's best receivers man-to-man.

 

Miles was usually up to the job, and others. Just as he has in Montreal, he set a team record for blocked kicks in a career with seven. His most memorable one came on national TV against Oklahoma State in 1993, when he smothered the ball on the punter's foot in the end zone and turned it into a touchdown that broke a 13-13 tie in a 27-13 win.

 

"People still remind me of that," he said.

 

Charlie McBride, NU's defensive coordinator at the time, said Miles was as good at cornerback as anyone the Huskers have had.

 

"He was a great cover guy," McBride said from his home in Fountain Hills, Ariz. "And he was as good a special teams guy as we had.

 

"He had a great attitude. Was a great team guy. And he was one of those guys who just made plays."

 

The 1994 Huskers visited Lubbock, Texas, to play Texas Tech, just as this year's Huskers are tonight. The game a decade ago was a dominating 42-16 NU victory, but it was marred by a season-ending knee injury to starting safety Mike Minter.

 

The Huskers plugged Kareem Moss into the lineup and pulverized UCLA and Pacific. Then they found out star quarterback Tommie Frazier had a career-threatening blood clot in his leg.

 

But even without Frazier and Minter, they powered past eight more opponents before getting Frazier back for the Miami win.

 

"We knew nothing could stop us," Miles said. "We had a great bunch of guys on the defensive side. It didn't matter what the offense did."

 

Miles arrived in Lincoln in 1991 from Roselle, N.J., academically ineligible because of the NCAA's Proposition 48 standards. But he graduated in four years with a degree in human resources. When his playing career ends, he'd like to coach.

 

He's married with three children, including a son, Barron Jr. Miles founded the Alouettes' "School is Cool" outreach program that visited 33 Quebec schools between seasons.

 

"I love it here," he said from Montreal. "Actually, it reminds me more of college. You get your rivalries, where you play teams more than twice a year sometimes. And like college, you're playing for the love of the game."

 

 

Contact the Omaha World-Herald newsroom

 

http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_np=0&u_pg...8&u_sid=1225554