Washington placekicker Devin Miller is part of a talented in-state kicker 2026 recruiting class but is learning when it comes to college kicker recruiting, patience is his biggest asset.

Matt Stevens, IlliniGuys Staff Writer

September 13, 2025

METAMORA, Ill. — For the last few years, Todd Stevens is one of the few state of Illinois high school head coaches with a game-changing x-factor in the kicking game.

The only difference with the handful of elite placekicking 2026 prospects and Stevens’ kicker, Devin Miller of Washington (Ill.) High School, is the rest of the power leg talents know where they’re headed for college next fall.

Miller, a 6-foot-4 and 180-pound athlete, once again proved Friday night why he should be considered among one of the best kicking prospects in what is a rare talent 2026 class of talent as Washington won its 20th consecutive Mid-Illini Conference game in a 24-0 victory at Metamora.

“I tell people all the time that I got really good genetics by being 6-foot-4 and lanky but I’ll tell you that I’ve lived in the weight room this summer and this season to improve my leg strength and I can really see a difference in my field goals and my kickoffs,” Miller said.

Miller gave Washington (2-1, 1-0) an early 3-0 lead on a 42-yard field goal that would’ve been good from at least five yards further while forcing a frustrated Metamora High School offense to consistently start at the 20-yard-line with kickoffs into the end zone. Miller also easily put through each of his three extra point attempts.

“I’m one of the rare coaches in Illinois high school football that has no doubt about putting my guy out there for a field goal anywhere from 40 to 50 yards out and believe he’s coming back with three points for us,” Stevens said. “And then on the ensuing kickoff, it’s like he’s our 12th defender out there because he just booms that thing into the end zone.”

Near the end of the first half of Friday night’s win over Metamora, Stevens had his special teams unit line up for a 50-yard field goal attempt that Miller says he believes he got enough power on it to easily have the length needed but the kick was blocked at the line-of-scrimmage in one of the rare things that went right for Metamora (2-1, 1-0).

Lining up for a field goal of 50-plus yards is not a rare occasion for Washington High School as Miller already has the school record by connecting on a 52-yard attempt against Dunlap last season. Stevens believes as Washington heads toward what is likely another Class 6A postseason berth for the Panthers program that Miller could be the winning element in a key game.

“I tell him all the time, there will be a moment where he’s going to win us a football game and I have confidence in him that he’ll make us a game-winning kick,” Stevens said. “What I can tell you is I’ve already seen defenses play differently against us because they know if we cross the 30-yard-line, they’re already losing three points to us. At that point, (the opposing defense) have to take chances to push us back and then it’s on our offense for that drive to see if we can get the other four points for a touchdown.”

Miller says anything from 55 yards or in is when he starts getting ready to get the look from his head coach and his routine continues to be the same once Washington’s offense crosses midfield.

“I just visualize the kick and then it’s just all about trusting the snap, trusting the hold and trusting the blocking in front of me,” Miller said. “I have confidence the guys around me will do the job and then it’s just up to me to make sure I put a good swing on the ball.”

Miller, who is also a goalkeeper on the Washington soccer team, participated in the specialist camp at the University of Illinois this past June where his kickoffs averaged 70 yards in the air and had around 3.9 seconds of hang time. Miller also shined this summer in a Chicago kicking camp at North Central College led by private instructor Chris Nendick. In an impressive in-state 2026 recruiting class for kickers that includes Michigan verbal commit Micah Drescher of Hinsdale Central High School, Northwestern verbal commit Noah Sur of Fenwick High School and Loyola Academy’s Zak Zeman, who is verbally pledged to Western Michigan, Miller continues to play the waiting game for Football Bowl Subdivision programs in need of a kicker help.

“The transfer portal has been something where recruitment for kickers really begins to heat up late in the process,” Miller said. “Kickers transfer all the time and then suddenly a team has a need for a kicker and so that when I think schools will eventually look at my numbers from camps and say ‘maybe we’ll bring him in as a freshman’. In the meantime, I just wait and focus on making every kick count in my last high school season.”

Like any other in-state talent, Miller would love to get more attention from Illinois special teams coordinator Robby Discher and Bret Bielema’s Illini program but there’s an obvious problem. Illinois (2-0), currently ranked No. 9 in the latest Associated Press Top 25 poll, has four kicking specialists (placekickers David Olano and Lucas Osada - who is a transfer addition from the University of North Carolina; punters Keelan Crimmins - a transfer from Purdue and Texas State transfer punter Lars Rau) with multiple years of eligibility remaining who made it on Bielema’s travel roster for last weekend for the 45-19 victory at Duke.

“I keep in touch with the coaches at Illinois but they’ve told me that as of right now they don’t need a kicker and that’s fine because they’ve been honest with me the entire time,” Miller said. “I’d just love to get a gameday invitation from a FBS program that needs me. I’ve got the grades (4.5 GPA on a four-point scale), the leg and the confidence to succeed at that level but I’ll just continue to be patient because I know kickers get recruited late in this sport.”

Washington, which has received votes in the latest Illinois Class 6A Associated Top 10 rankings, has not lost a Mid-Illini Conference game in three years (49-28 at Pekin on Sept. 16, 2021). On this Friday night, the Panthers defense was able to bottle up Metamora High School rushing attack led by Northern Illinois 2026 verbal commit Jaiduan Cranford and 2027 Keon Allen, who is expected to attend tonight’s Illini game in Champaign as they host Western Michigan, for just 34 yards on 24 carries.