Tony Miller

Tony Miller is in his second season as the head coach of the Purdue track & field and cross country programs and his third season at Purdue, after serving as associate head coach for the Boilermakers in 2023-24.  

Miller brought nearly 20 years of coaching experience to his role as head coach. Previously, he was at Louisville for four seasons where he was recognized as the 2022-23 USTFCCCA Southeast Region Men’s Assistant Coach of the Year indoors.

2024-25
In his first season as the head coach, Miller led Purdue to eight All-American honors, three individual Big Ten titles and one relay Big Ten title. Purdue broke five school records during the outdoor season and three during the indoor season. The men’s program finished the indoor season seventh in the revamped Big Ten after Oregon, USC, Washington and UCLA joined the conference.

Cameron Miller led Purdue with First Team All-American honors indoors when he finished third at the NCAA Indoor Championships in the 200m. He then claimed Second Team All-American status in the 200m by finishing ninth at the NCAA Outdoor Championships. Miller also claimed the Big Ten 200m title during both the indoor and the outdoor championships. He was named the Great Lakes Region Men's Indoor Track Athlete of the Year. Miller set a school record in both the outdoor 200m (20.12) and indoor 200m (20.27) and also ran a then-sixth-fastest 300m (32.43) in NCAA history. Both Miller's indoor 200m and 300m were a Big Ten record. 

Jalen Elrod earned First Team All-American status with her eighth-place finish in the pentathlon at the NCAA Indoor Championships. She set a school record in the pentathlon three times and her 4,233 points at nationals sits atop the program rankings. She was also the Big Ten runner-up in the event. She followed with a Second Team All-American campaign outdoors after she finished 16th in the heptathlon.

The men’s 4x400m relay team of Miller, Connor Czajkowski, Brett Otterbacher and Antoine Spencer claimed the Big Ten Indoor Championships title in school-record fashion (3:04.95). The group went on to finish 10th at the NCAA Indoor Championships to earn Second Team All-American honors. The outdoor 4x400m relay team of Jahn Riley, Miller, Otterbacher and Spencer set a school record in 3:03.64.

Praise Aniamaka was a First Team All-American in the triple jump indoors after his fifth-place finish. He was also the Big Ten Indoor Championships triple jump winner. Zoe Sullivan earned Second Team All-American honors with a 12th-place finish in the 60mH at the NCAA Indoor Championships.

Bode Gilkerson added Second Team All-American honors with his 13th-place finish in the high jump at the NCAA Outdoor Championships. Andreas Hantson earned Honorable Mention All-American with a 17th-place finish in the decathlon at the NCAA Outdoor Championships. 

Other school records during Miller’s first year at the helm included Douglas Buckeridge in the outdoor 10,000m, Caleb Williams in the 3000m steeplechase and Payne Turney in the outdoor 5000m.

During the cross country season, Miller helped guide Buckeridge to a runner-up finish at the NCAA Great Lakes Regional and 43rd-place finish at the NCAA Championships. Buckeridge ran the fastest 10k (29:12.9) in school history during the regional meet. 

2023-24
In his first year in West Lafayette as Associate Head Coach, Miller helped guide the Boilermakers to seven All-America honors and a trio of individual outdoor Big Ten titles. His sprinters broke three school records, one that had stood for 52 years and another for 20 years. Miller helped both the men’s and women’s teams to improvements in the Big Ten outdoor standings from a season ago, including a six-place rise for the men, moving the Boilermakers into the top half of the conference.

Last season, Miller primarily worked with the Boilermaker sprinters and hurdlers and served as recruiting coordinator. Under Miller’s coaching, graduate student Cameron Miller had one of the best seasons in school history, breaking both 200-meter records en route to two All-America accolades, first team indoors and second team outdoors. His indoor mark of 20.40 was the third-fastest in the world at the time and bested a 20-year record atop Purdue’s top-10 list. He took bronze at the Big Ten Championships and advanced to the final at the NCAA Championships. Outdoors, Miller broke the school record twice, topping a mark that had stood since 1972. He won a Big Ten title and again reached the national championships to earn his second All-America award of the season.

Under Coach Miller’s tutelage in 2023-24, the Boilermakers also broke an eight-year-old record in the men’s 4x400 relay. His sprinters achieved numerous other record-book times along with top-eight podium finishes at the Big Ten Championships.

Before Purdue
Miller arrived at Purdue after serving as an assistant coach at Louisville. In 2022-23, he helped guide two athletes and three relays to the NCAA Outdoor Championships and two individuals qualified for the indoor national championships. Miller’s NCAA qualifiers totaled three first team All-America honors, in the 200-meter and 4x100 relay outdoors and the 200m indoors. Nine of Miller’s athletes set school records outdoors and five indoor records fell under his watch.

In 2021-22, a second team All-America accolade capped the season that saw Miller’s runners earn three All-ACC accolades and two medals, one of them gold, outdoors along with a 60m ACC title and All-America distinction indoors. Five school records were set and one of Miller’s runners was selected to race at the U.S. Track & Field Championships in the 100m.

The 2020-21 campaign featured a first team All-America award in the 60m indoors thanks to a school-record time. This came after an All-ACC award indoors in 2020 and another two team records.

Miller came to Louisville from SMU, where he was an assistant coach from 2006-19. The 2018-19 season saw Miller’s Mustangs break seven school records, win three conference titles and qualify four to the NCAA regionals and one to the NCAA Championships. A year before that, in 2017-18, Miller led his runners to a conference championship, two regional qualifiers and one NCAA Championships berth along with four school records. In 2016-17, the Mustangs broke one school record, won two gold medals at the conference meet and sent two to the NCAA regionals.

At North Texas from 2004-06, Miller helped lead the Mean Green to their first Sun Belt Conference women’s championship and coached his athletes to eight all-conference honors.

Miller is a 1996 graduate of Baylor University with a bachelor degree in business administration-marketing. He received a U.S. Track & Field Level II coaching certification in 2006.