It's the rocks for PSU's new jock Gavin Miller

One of Portland State's prizes of the transfer portal is a 6-foot-6, 310-pound boulder of a lineman coming from Brown for PSU's Geology program.

PORTLAND — Gavin Miller really shouldn’t have been in the transfer portal that long. The 6-foot-6, 310-pound tackle from Long Island is an All-Ivy League offensive lineman with two years of eligibility remaining.

Brains, size and pedigree generally lead to a quick stay in transfer limbo, but one of the two requirements on Miller’s checklist for a new team kept him in a holding pattern a little longer than it should have.

The easy part? Miller wanted a place where he could see himself living the next two years. He had never been to Portland, just California a few times, but was convinced after conversations with the Vikings’ staff that the city could be that for him.

The hard part? Well, there just aren’t too many football programs out there for someone with a degree from Brown who is serious about taking the next step in the field of Geology.

“I had a decent career at Brown so I just put myself out there to see where it went,” Miller told The I-5 Corridor last week. “Having Geology being so specific, really, for me, it was first finding a place that had it.”

Portland State does. And it’s not every day that a top-15 FCS class nets a professor a shoutout in the signing day notes like this year’s did:

Portland State's excellent Geology Department and Professor Scott Burns were actually a major factor in Gavin deciding to transfer here and further his education.

The concept of athletes taking geology classes isn’t exactly new. But it is less common to find one who takes the field so seriously. Miller competed in volleyball, lacrosse, basketball and, around 10th grade, realized he might have a future on the gridiron. He never considered himself a brainiac — he’s not much of a mathematician — but got good grades and found he really had a passion for science and history.

“You put those two together and you get science history, which is geology,” Miller said. “I took an early class at Brown called Mars, Moon and the Earth. I really enjoyed that. I had come in wanting to do Bio, or some type of engineering. I like cars. I like working with my hands. Geology was something I found really intriguing and just went with it.”

Photo courtesy of Gavin Miller.

From an education standpoint, Miller believes he’s in a rock solid place. He said his time at Brown was all about making connections that will last him 40 years. Maybe, he said, he’ll become a geologist for a private company. Maybe, he said, he’ll become a full-time researcher.

But, of course, that’s all after the next two years. Until then, he’s going to be expected to play a large role in protecting the Big Sky’s most experienced quarterback in Dante Chachere and blasting open running lanes for the Vikings’ stable of talented running backs.

“Getting my master’s degree and playing my best football, that’s the main goal,” he said. “A lot of people say it’s going to be a lot of work, but I’m going to enjoy the process. Whatever happens after, whatever happens in between, that’s just whatever happens.”

— Tyson Alger, The I-5 Corridor