Playing through Pain: Ventrell Miller giving his all for the Gators
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Ventrell Miller should have been exhausted. His once white pants were stained green and black from grass and dirt. His wrists showed a tan line where the sun couldn’t reach through his wrist guards. He looks like he’d been all over the field because he had, but he stood in the South end zone meeting room smiling.
Miller finished the Missouri game with 11 tackles, 10 of them solo. He had two tackles for a loss, tying a career high. He was everywhere.
“I don’t know how many times where they got a play that looks like it is going to develop and then 51 just comes out of nowhere. Ventrell is productive as a player, but it is more impactful than just the production,” Florida coach Billy Napier said after the game. “That’s the thing that is significant. The guy is inspirational relative to his example, his consistency as a person, his leadership, his presence. He makes other people around him better. That showed up today.”
Miller is playing hurt, although you wouldn’t know it after the performance he put on against Missouri. The sixth-year senior is going through great lengths to play every Saturday. Miller missed almost the entirety of 2021 with a torn biceps tendon, which allowed him to come back to school in 2022 for a sixth season. He made it just two games before sustaining a foot injury against Kentucky. It would keep him out of the USF game and his absence was notable.
“I don’t know that you replace Ventrell Miller,” Napier said after the USF game. “His leadership, his ability to communicate and his production. There’s a lot there.”
Miller made the decision to play through the pain. Doctors told him that he wouldn’t make his injury worse by playing. It would be painful and he would have to manage — or ignore — that pain if he wanted to get back on the field.
What does Miller do from Sunday to Friday in order to play on Saturday?
Miller’s path to play on Saturday will begin Sunday with treatment for the game and then practice. The team is off the field on Monday, but Tuesdays are early mornings with cornerback Jaydon Hill.
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“Tuesdays and Thursdays I attack my rehab with Hill. We’re in there about the same time early in the morning,” Miller said. “Just rehabbing, keeping it iced.”
There’s also some load management going on. UF linebackers coach Jay Bateman is doing his best to help Miller by managing his snaps.
“I know they probably take a little bit of reps off me in practice,” Miller said. “I’m a practice player so I’ll be a little mad at coach Bateman when I see him trying to put other people in.”
Then there’s Saturday. Despite the hours spent in the training room, and taking reps off of him in practice, he’s still in pain. Miller gets a numbing injection at least once before the game on Saturday. He’s playing on one foot and a lot of heart.
Saturday was a perfect example of why Miller is putting his body through this. The Gators need him and he’s giving his teammates, coaches and the University of Florida everything he has and more.
