The Indiana football program has one of the top young assistant coaches in the country and he brings with him a great upside and a connection with Curt Cignetti for many years.
Running back coach John Miller was hired by Cignetti at James Madison in 2021 and spent three seasons helping build one of the most potent offenses and rushing attacks with the Dukes.
And according to 247Sports national analyst Chris Hummer, Miller is ranked the No. 28 assistant coach under the age of 30 — in the ’30under30′ for 2024.
During Miller’s time with the Dukes, his running backs averaged 175.6 rushing yards per game and 1.9 touchdowns over 45 games. Six James Madison running backs ran for at least 500 yards in a season and his group rushed for over 2,000 yards twice.
Kaelon Black also transferred to Indiana after he led the Dukes in rushing last year. On 142 attempts, Black ran for 637 yards while averaging 4.5 yards per carry, and scored one rushing touchdown. Black also caught 27 passes for 254 yards and scored four touchdowns through the air.
Ty Son Lawton was second on James Madison in rushing with 126 carries for 568 rushing yards, averaging 4.5 yards per carry. Lawton also added 19 catches for 174 yards and finished the season with six total touchdowns.
Miller also coached Percy Agyei-Obese — a multi-year All-Sun Belt selection.
Miller, who was a former wide receiver at JMU, has a high focus on building good habits and that has been the backbone to his coaching success.
“We’re going to use our backs a lot in our offense. We ask those guys to do a lot,” Miller said this spring. “It’s why we’ve been successful at that position and offensively as a whole.
“I’m from the Show Me state. You gotta be able to show me that you can really go out there and do it. You can look good in the drills and you can say all the right things in the meeting room, but it got to show up on the field.”
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