Staff Bios
by Matt Miller
President/Owner/Director of Scouting
Matt Miller:
As the owner and creator of New Era Scouting, Miller is responsible for the daily operations of the website and message board, as well as the direct supervisor to a growing staff. Miller also serves as the Director of Scouting, managing both college and pro scouting for New Era. The college scouting format developed by Miller and former scout Jeff Cottrill has become familiar throughout the industry. Matt has worked in many facets during his brief career as a writer, coach, scout and radio analyst. Matt has worked with many NFL, AFL and NCAA teams over the past decade, with his work being seen by the Carolina Panthers, St. Louis Rams and Houston Texans; as well as being featured on NFL.com, CNNSI.com and AOL FanHouse writings, Miller has also been featured on ESPN Radio, WEEI Radio and many other regional shows. Matt is a credentialed scout for the Big 12 and the University of Missouri football team. Matt also has recently launched an NFL Draft blog with the SportsBlogsNation.com network, titled MockingtheDraft.com.
As a coach, Miller served as the special teams and secondary coordinator for the Central Football League champion Joplin Crusaders during the 2007 and 2008 Spring seasons. Matt has also served as a high school football coach in Missouri.
Before starting New Era Scouting, Miller began his work in the NFL Draft field as the San Francisco 49ers team writer for NFL Draft Blitz. After two seasons of work as a staff writer, Miller was promoted to Senior Columnist and then quickly given the title of Vice President. While at NFL Draft Blitz, Miller helped what would become the most visited independent football website on the Internet transition to a new design as well as creating his Inside Information section that has carried over to New Era. Miller then became the acting President of NFL Draft Blitz, assisting owner Chris Horwedel in the day-to-day operations as well as acting as Director of Scouting and new content. Miller left Blitz amicably to create his own site, NFL Draft Almanac, before the 2006 NFL Draft. Almanac found a fast-growing following by fans and media members alike, propelling the staff and website into the minds of many as a top NFL Draft site. The success of Draft Almanac led to a brief merger with former site NFL Draft Blitz in May 2006. The merger proved to be ineffective for both sites, and a split was made in February 2007 with the launch of New Era Scouting.
Director of Content
Luke Chandler: Beginning in July 2007, Luke became the Director of Content for New Era Scouting. He is in charge of the direction and of the site’s original content, a regular contributor to a thriving operation. Luke has helped shape the direction of the site’s writing staff, pushing for a focus on in depth scouting of high school, college, pro, and arena football that is rarely found elsewhere on the internet. Prior to taking charge of the creative aspect of the site, he was a staff writer with a weekly column and part time NCAA scout. He also is a NFL Scout for the site, covering primarily the AFC North. Luke has been featured in the past on various internet and terrestrial radio shows. Prior to becoming a part of New Era, Luke had done mostly free lance work, and spot contributions elsewhere on the net. He was an independent evaluator who kept up with the sport, hoping to get back into the business at some point. The start of Luke’s path in football came at NFL Draft Blitz. He was originally a team writer for the Cleveland Browns, covering them from January 2002 until being elevated to a staff writer position in October 2003. During his time at Blitz, Luke was able to learn the ins and outs of his trade, and gain valuable experience in relating to prospects and agents. In July 2004, NFL Draft Blitz and Luke amicably parted ways. Luke is a proud graduate of Cleveland State University’s class of 2003. He earned a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology.
College Football Scouts
Dan Kadar: Dan Kadar is a scout and site editor for New Era Scouting. His scouting duties chiefly include the Pac-10 and the Mid-American Conference. He also compiles draft news from various media outlets for a blog on NES. Kadar is also a professional journalist. His work has been published nationwide, predominantly in the Akron Beacon Journal as well as the Detroit Free Press and the Wilmington News Journal. Kadar worked for the Beacon Journal for two and a half years, with the bulk of his work being done for the features department. He studied mass media communications at the University of Akron. There, he worked for the school paper, the Buchtelite. While at the Buchtelite, he held several editing positions, including editor in chief and sports editor. As sports editor, Kadar covered the Zips football team and quarterback Charlie Frye’s journey to the NFL.
Josh Gaier: Josh Gaier, a student at Penn State, is an inspiring journalist who has been closely following the NFL Draft over the last five years. While at Penn State, Gaier plans on obtaining a double major in Business Management and Journalism. For New Era Scouting, Gaier writes scouting reports as well as articles. In addition, Gaier writes and moderates over the Football’s Future forums. Also, Gaier currently has his own blog.
Eric Loomis: Eric Loomis joined the New Era staff in the fall of 2007 as a college football scout and writer. Loomis previously worked with Matt Miller and others as a writer for NFLDraftBlitz.com. Loomis specializes in scouting the ACC.
High School Scouts
Flynn Hill- Head Scout: Flynn began covering high school football for NFL Draft Almanac in the beginning of 2006. Flynn followed the other members of the current staff following the closing of NFL Draft Almanac and NFL Draft Blitz. Flynn is currently the head high school scout for New Era Scouting.
Nick Ironside: Ironside, a recently joined high school football analyst has started working on more interviews, hoping to do more, at a faster pace with the New Era Scouting structure. He has just started with the ‘09 class, and is still contacting and interviewing members of the ‘08 class, as well. His first interview for New Era Scouting was with Graham Pocic, a verbal commitment to Illinois in the class of ‘08. Before his tenure with New Era Scouting, Ironside started out interviewing a select group of high school recruits, starting out with Notre Dame prospects, and then branching out into a broader interview basis, interviewing over 30 different high school recruits in 3 classes. Notable names high school names include Sam Young and Zach Frazer from the ‘06 class, Lee Ziemba, Ian Williams, and Justin Trattou from the ‘07 class, and Kyle Rudolph, Deion Walker, and Dayne Crist from the ‘08 class. Ironside wrote for his own RecruitsNI site for 6 months in 2007, before freelancing for a number of different sites.
Caleb Johnson: Johnson, along with fellow scout Flynn Hill, covers high school football, recruit rankings, and some college scouting for New Era Scouting. Over the fall of 2007, Johnson covered ESPN’s televised high school games each week and the top performing true freshmen in college football, along with his work with Hill in recruiting. He will have much more to come as the 2008 recruiting season heats up and the 2009 class approaches. Johnson also covered central Florida high school football for the Orlando Sentinel in 2007. He has tentative plans of coaching offensive linemen at the Freshman or Junior Varsity level at his alma-mater, Oviedo High School, in 2008. Before accepting an invitation to the New Era Scouting staff in the summer of 2007, Johnson was a frequent visitor of the site, dating back to 2003 when New Era Scouting founder Matt Miller was working with NFL Draft Blitz. There, Johnson covered Nebraska football, writing a thorough monthly column. He then followed many of the forum’s posters to NFL Draft Almanac, where he won the 2006 Mock Draft Challenge, and eventually to New Era Scouting. Johnson graduated from Oviedo High School in the greater Orlando area in 2005. He participated in class 6A (Florida’s largest) football for four years, two on the Varsity level, and was also a member of the school’s award-winning newspaper staff for two years. He enrolled at the University of Central Florida upon graduation and is currently majoring in Journalism and minoring in Coaching. In 2006, Johnson covered the Oviedo High School varsity football team as a staff member at a local paper, The Voice.
Writers
Dave Gardner: Dave Gardner joined New Era Scouting immediately before the 2007 NFL Playoffs, capping off the postseason by correctly predicting the Giants historic upset over the Patriots. Now a full-time staff member, Dave is a leading contributer to New Era Scouting’s NFL coverage, reporting on the season, the Draft, and everything in between. He is also a Pro Scout, focusing on the AFC South and the NFC South. Growing up in Tampa during the Buccaneers reclamation years under Coach Tony Dungy, he learned to love hard-hitting defense and a strong running game. Although he favors no NFL teams, he is extremely biased toward the University of Florida Gators; a student there, he majors in Journalism and Psychology. His work has appeared on ProFootballTalk.com and CollegeFootballTalk.com, and he has interviewed players across the country, from the Dennis Dixon to Andre Caldwell.
Chris Harris
Clark Rucker: Clark Rucker is a third year law student at the University of Texas at Austin, and will be graduating in May 2008. He is also a 2005 graduate of Texas Christian University, where he double majored in Marketing and Finance. Clark is a columnist for New Era Scouting, where he focuses a majority of his efforts on the goings-on of college football, monitoring the draft stocks of current college players, and as of December 2007, detailing the team needs of each NFL franchise. He also makes regular appearances on local ESPN Radio and Fox Sports Radio stations as well as appearances on various unaffiliated sports talk radio stations. Prior to his time at New Era Scouting, Clark was a columnist for NFLDraftBlitz.com where he wrote a weekly column on the topic of his choosing. Upon the dissolution of the marriage between NFL Draft Almanac and NFL Draft Blitz, Clark joined the team at New Era Scouting. Clark and his wife Rebecca will be moving to Fort Worth, Texas in August 2008, where both will continue their careers.
Dave Ryan: Dave Ryan’s name has become synonomous with New Era Scouting and NFL Draft Almanac over the past four years. Ryan is jack of all trades for New Era; handling mock drafts, college football scouting, fantasy football coverage and starting in June of 2008, Pro Scouting.