Jam Miller admits he always wanted to attend Texas prior to Alabama offer

Jam Miller enters his fourth season with the Alabama Crimson Tide as the starting running back. Being a contributor on past teams, Miller now has an opportunity to be the guy in Tuscaloosa. It’s a deep position room but Miller appears to be on track to get most of the workload.

In a different world, Miller is in Austin playing for the Texas Longhorns. From his time as a kid, the goal was to play for Texas, and at one point, the dream came true. Miller was a long-time commit of the Longhorns. Until things changed when an offer came through from Nick Saban.

“It’s going to sound messed up,” Miller said. “But I knew Alabama but I didn’t really know Alabama, how great they was. I always grew up a Texas fan. My godparents, they went to Texas, graduated from Texas. Whole time, since I was little, mind was ‘If I get an offer from Texas, I’m going to Texas.’ I believe it was my junior year, I committed to Texas… did the whole process. OVs, all that. Later, I ended up getting an offer from Bama. Everybody was like ‘Bama is a big thing.’ Bama has been great for so many years.

“Then I started thinking ‘Do I want to go to a place where I can start immedietly, get on the field and play. Or I can wait behind a few guys, great guys, build my craft, and be coaches by the best coach in the world.’ That was a hard decision.”

At the time, Texas was in the midst of a 5-7 season under Steve Sarkisian. Alabama was playing up to its normal standard under Saban. A decision came on Thanksgiving night, just two days before the Crimson Tide faced off against Auburn in the now-famous 2021 Iron Bowl.

Miller had to call then-Texas running backs coach Stan Drayton to deliver the news. While a lot of people surrounding him may have been upset, he believes the right choice was made.

“It was Thanksgiving night,” Miller said. “It was me and my Mom in the car, we were just talking. ‘You’ve got to make a decision now.’ And that night, I remember calling the Texas running back coach and telling him ‘I’m decommitting from Texas.’ And that broke a lot of family members’ hearts… But I had to make the best decision for me.”

Looking at his stats, Miller can reflect and feel validated thus far. In 40 games, he has rushed for 1,092 yards and 10 touchdowns. A breakout season was recorded in 2024, going for 668 yards and seven scores. As mentioned, waiting behind a few guys almost always occurs at Alabama.

Now, a chance to become a lead back is there. Texas has done just fine at running back throughout the years but it’s always fun to wonder what if.