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Chris
Miller Named to Playboy All-America Team (04/24/2007) |
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FROM BALL STATE
ATHLETICS COMMUNICATIONS & MARKETING
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Only the
Second Ball State Player Ever Named to the Team |
| MUNCIE, Ind. --
Chris Miller (Libertyville, Ill./Carmel H.S.), who
will be a junior punter for the Ball State University
football team in 2007, has been named to the Playboy
All-America Preseason Football Team. |
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"Chris Miller is a weapon
for our football team," Ball State head coach Brady
Hoke says. "He has been very proficient in his
career, and is continuing to work hard to get better and
better at his craft. He still has a lot of work to do in
his last two years, but we are very proud of his
accomplishments. Chris is very deserving of this extremely
prestigious honor." |
| Miller,
who was named to The Sporting News All-America Second Team
in 2006, led the Mid-American Conference and ranked second
in the nation with a 46.26 punting average last season. A
two-time All-MAC First Team punter, Miller punted
57 times for 2,637 yards with a long punt of 78 yards last
season. Of his 57 punts, 20 were placed inside the
opponent’s 20-yard line, 10 were touchbacks and six were
fair catches. Opponents returned 26 punts against the
Cardinals in 2006 and averaged only 7.2 yards per punt
with 15 yards being the longest return. Ball State’s net
punting in 2006 was 38.28, which ranked seventh in the
country. |
| Miller’s 2,637
punt yards ranked as the 10th highest single-season total
in Ball State history, while his 46.3 average was the
second best in Ball State annals, behind only Brad
Maynard’s 46.5 average in 1995. |
| Maynard is the
only other Ball State football player selected to the
Playboy All-America Preseason Football Team, when he was
selected prior to the 1996 season. Maynard, who completed
his 10th season in the National Football League this
season as a member of the Super Bowl bound Chicago Bears,
was named to 16 All-America teams in his four-year career
from 1993-96. |
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also received honorable mention on the SI.com All-America
Team last fall, and was a co-recipient of Ball State’s
Bill Reynolds Special Teams Player of the Year Award. The
Bill Reynolds Award is given in the memory of the man who
spent 31 years as a volunteer in the Ball State athletics
department with an emphasis on the football program prior
to his death in the summer of 2000. |
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