{"id":398998,"date":"2026-08-06T05:12:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-06T05:12:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/398998\/"},"modified":"2026-08-06T05:12:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-06T05:12:09","slug":"miller-football-ready-to-surprise-in-uil-4a-di-district-15","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/398998\/","title":{"rendered":"Miller football ready to surprise in UIL 4A-DI District 15"},"content":{"rendered":"

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas \u2014 Miller might have a new head coach this year and they’re in a new division, but one this is the same. They’ve got a fantastic defense led by junior defensive end Deion Jones, and he’s one of the fastest off the ball.<\/p>\n

“Everybody on the D line is returning this year,\u00a0so that’s what I like about it.\u00a0We’re definitely gonna have a lot of good chemistry.\u00a0We’re definitely more physical and we are way more vocal than we were last year.”<\/p>\n

\"Miller<\/p>\n

Larissa Liska<\/p>\n

Jones is physical, powerful, fast and tough to go one-on-one. Last fall he Miller with 3 sacks and 12 hurries, plus he added 72 tackles. His skills were recently recognized by UTSA as he received a Division 1 college offer.<\/p>\n

“Honestly,\u00a0it felt really good just to know that all my work is paying off,” Jones said. “That I have the talent and what it takes to play at the Division I level.\u00a0It just made a kid more hungry.”<\/p>\n

\"Deion<\/p>\n

Deion Jones<\/p>\n

Jones is not the only one to keep on the radar. Miller senior linebacker Espn Cole led the Bucs in tackles last season with 126 through 11 games.<\/p>\n

“We’ve been training physicality\u00a0and you know,\u00a0during the offseason,” Cole said. “It’s just weight room,\u00a0weight room,\u00a0and just being physical. Swimming to the ball,\u00a011 hats.”<\/p>\n

\"Miller<\/p>\n

Larissa Liska<\/p>\n

“This might be one of the best defensive teams that I think that Miller is going to put on the field in a long time,” said Miller first year head coach David McHugh.<\/p>\n

Miller’s offense might be young, but some of the players have experience from last year. It’s currently a quarterback and running back battle for the starting role, but they’re alongside a veteran offensive line. There are 3-4 guys competing at quarterback including Jayden Herrera and Gavin Garcia. At running back Tayshaun Taylor and David Villarreal are two of the guys battling it out.<\/p>\n

“It helps when we have an O-line that has been here,” McHugh said. “Our whole O line is full of juniors with one senior,\u00a0so that’s a huge,\u00a0a huge aspect to the game as well.”<\/p>\n

\"Miller's<\/p>\n

Larissa Liska<\/p>\n

The Bucs are hungry after falling in the first round last season, but they’re ready after dropping down to UIL 4A-DI and joining a new district alongside new head coach McHugh.<\/p>\n

“One thing a lot of people forget about this football team\u00a0last year is that we’re a (4-7) football team,” McHugh said. “I think that\u00a0bringing back a lot of guys,\u00a0a lot of guys that are hungry to make sure that that doesn’t happen again,\u00a0is a huge thing.”<\/p>\n

Miller kicks off the season on the road at Flour Bluff on Friday, Aug. 28 at 7:30 p.m. Check it out because it’s our Friday Night Fever Game of the Week.<\/p>\n

UIL 4A-DI District 15
Beeville Jones
Calallen
Tuloso-Midway
Corpus Christi King
Corpus Christi Miller
Corpus Christi Moody
Port Lavaca Calhoun<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas \u2014 Miller might have a new head coach this year and they’re in a new…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":398999,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[13723,140049,16307,17241,7256,155,157,156,97415,140050,140051,17246],"class_list":["post-398998","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-corpus-christi","tag-13723","tag-4a","tag-buccaneers","tag-bucs","tag-coastal-bend","tag-corpus-christi","tag-corpus-christi-headlines","tag-corpus-christi-news","tag-david-mchugh","tag-deion-jones","tag-espn-cole","tag-miller"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398998","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=398998"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398998\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/398999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=398998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=398998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=398998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}