Monmouth football receiver on record-setting pace, ranked among college football leaders

WEST LONG BRANCH – They’re the greatest single-season performances, part of a decades-long lineage of top Monmouth receivers, including: Miles Austin’s 20.5-yard average and 11 TDs in 2005; the program-record 1,133 yards and 11 TDs by Reggie White Jr. in 2018; and the 139 catches for 1,948 yards and 19 TDs Lonnie Moore (74-1,022, 9 TDs) and Terrence Greene (65-916, 10 TDs) combined for in 2019.

Dymere Miller is on that same trajectory, ranking in the top three nationally in yards-per-game (99.7), catches-per-game (8.1) and total yards (698) through seven games. That projects to 89 catches, which would shatter the current mark of 74 held by White and Moore, for 1,096 yards and nine TDs.

“He’s certainly part of that group. His play on the field speaks for itself. He’s one of the best receivers we’ve ever had,” Monmouth head coach Kevin Callahan said. “It’s hard to rank them because all different eras, different levels of competition. But we’re playing the best competition we’ve ever played now, and he is continuing to excel."

Monmouth (3-4, 2-2 CAA) now braces for Saturday’s CAA showdown with No. 22/24 William & Mary (4-3, 2-2) in Williamsburg, Virginia, with the two teams part of a five-way logjam for seventh place in the tightly-packed 15-team standings.

It’s all particularly pertinent this week since William & Mary’s defense ranks No. 1 in the CAA in scoring defense (16.5 points), total defense (261.7 yards) and passing defense (146.9 yards), while Monmouth is first in total offense (440.9 yards) and third in scoring offense (35.6 points).

More: Monmouth football comeback falls short at Elon, 28-26

Miller accounted for 211 of Monmouth’s 460 yards of offense in a 28-26 loss at Elon last Saturday, catching 11 passes for 146 yards and a TD, to go with 65 yards rushing and another score.

“It’s always a goal to have a great season - one of the best seasons - but I know that’s going to come if I just keep playing the way I’m play. and right now I’m just focused on winning games,” Miller said.

Quick chemistry

Miller’s putting up great totals even through he’s playing his first season with quarterback Marquez McCray, a graduate transfer who had led Sacred Heart to a pair of FCS Playoff appearances.

“It’s just all about trust,” Miller said. “I’m getting open and he is finding me so we connected early in the season and built that trust and it just went from there, and we’re putting up those kind of numbers. We have chemistry, like if it’s a zone there are certain ways I run the route and he knows that now.”

Against Elon, Miller had a 43-yard TD catch and a 68-yard touchdown run. He had a 36-yard TD catch in a win over Lehigh and has four 100-yard games this season, after catching 55 passes for 820 yards and seven TDs in eight games.

“He’s got another gear to him when he runs,” Callahan said. “You saw that the other day when it looked like they were going to get him on the sideline (on his TD run) and he pulled away. He takes being a receiver very seriously. He studies what to do, how to get open, and he spends a lot of time on that.”

Now Miller is providing an example for Monmouth corps of young receivers, including junior T.J. Speight, with 17 catches this season, sophomore Gavin Nelson and freshman Josh Derry, much the same as Moore and Greene helped him as a young player.

“They are looking at what he is doing and learning, and he’s great about sharing those things with them, just like he got it from somebody before him,” Callahan said.

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: College football games this weekend: Monmouth vs Elon