KING MILLER (30) surprise star for USC football.

In following sports with its highly-regarded stars sometimes flaming out and unknowns stepping up like Roy Hobbs, have you ever wondered if the scouts, the guys behind the NFL combine and the player portal are sort of …

Guessing?

I call your attention to the case of King Miller (is that a great name or what?), the USC running back who came out of relative obscurity at Calabasas High where he was a star running back.

But his star didn’t burn bright enough to get the serious attention of the major football powers.

He got scholarship offers from some schools – Nevada, San Jose State and Portland State – but not from any “school” where you could recall the name of the coach or the school mascot.

He was finally able to land a spot at his “dream school” – USC – as a “preferred walk-on,” which may be more impressive than it sounds,

As a freshman he got no playing time. As a sophomore he sat behind a community college transfer,

Finally, in his third year as a Trojan (the team is 7-2, 5-1 in the Big 10), he got his chance. He ripped off a 75-yard TD run in the opener against Missouri State and a 41-yard score against Georgia Southern. Against Nebraska he ran for 129 yards and a TD. Perhaps the most important thing about his running stats is that a lot of them came after contact: breaking tackles and pulling away from pursuers.

Maybe the coaches in big time college sports are good at quantifying physical assets in prospective players. But there’s more to the process.

“He never lost focus, never stopped supporting his teammates and being a part of the team,” says Trojan coach Lincoln Riley. “King has the perfect attitude.”

Maybe someday there will be a combine for that, and we can take some of the remaining guesswork out of picking players for the star treatment.

Editor’s note: USC (ranked 17th in the nation) will host Iowa (6-3) on Saturday.