After serving as a consultant with the Thunderbird program the past two years Ken Miller joins the staff in a fulltime capacity as offensive line coach this season.
Coach Miller brings a wealth of experience to the Thunderbird staff that includes stops at every level of football, including as an assistant and head coach at the high school, college and professional levels.
A graduate of Dickinson State University, Coach Miller becan his career as a student assistant at DSU before going on to work as an assistant at the high school level after his graduation. He got his first head coaching position at California’s Yucaipa High School in 1970, then moved to the collegiate ranks as offensive line coach at University of Redlands in 1977. In 1984 he took over as head coach at Redlands but elected to step down from the head job and take over as offensive coordinator in 1988. In 1994 he moved to the defensive side of the ball, taking over as D-coordinator for one season before moving back to offensive coordinator in 1995, where he worked until 2000 when he elected to retire from UR.
While at Redlands, Coach Miller also served as the Bulldogs’ baseball coach, guiding that program to a 250-235-2 record between 1986 and 2000, with a conference title in 1991.
Coach Miller came out of retirement in 2002 to join the Toronto Argonauts as quarterback coach, then moved to the offensive line in 2003, where he spent thiree seasons, including the 2004 campaign when the Argonauts won the Grey Cup. He moved to the defensive side of the ball, as line coach, in 2006.
In 2007 he moved from the Argonauts to the Saskatchewan Roughriders, where he took over as offensive coordinator and helped the Argos to a Grey Cup championship. He took over as head coach in 2008, spending three seasons in that position and leading the team to appearances in the Grey Cup in 2009 and 2010. Following the 2010 season he again retired from coaching, moving into the front office as vice president of football operations, but he returned to the sidelines midway through the 2011 season a 1-7 start and coached the team through the remainder of the campaign. He announced late in the 2011 season that he would step down from both the coaching position and the football operations positions following the season.
During his time with the Roughriders he was a CFL Coach of the Year finalist twice, got his team into the playoffs every year, and his 32-21-1 regular-season record represents the third-highest winning percentage in team history.
