In 1986, Trent Miles played his last football game on a Thursday night. By Monday, the Indiana State graduate was coaching.

Miles, Notre Dame's newest wide receivers coach, had aspirations of playing in the NFL but wound up coaching there instead of playing.

"I wanted to play pro football but that didn't work out and I realized my senior year that that wasn't going to work out," Miles said. "My last game was a Thursday night, an ESPN game and that Monday I became a coach."

Miles coached wide receivers with Irish head coach Ty Willingham last year at Stanford and followed him to Notre Dame this winter. Before that, he was at Green Bay as an offensive assistant, coaching wide receivers and doing quality control. But if you ask him now which he liked better, coaching in the pros or coaching college, his answer is pretty straight forward."Coaching, just coaching," he said.

Miles, like most coaches, has been all over the country coaching. He began at his alma mater Indiana State, moved to Fresno State, had an internship with the Seattle Seahawks and spent some time at the University of New Mexico and at the University of Oklahoma. He's coached on both sides of the ball, working with defensive backs and wide receivers and worked with a West Coast offense at Stanford and an option offense at Oklahoma. With that kind of experience, he's taken a little bit from each place he's been and come up with a coaching philosophy of his own.

"I've been able to pull a little bit of different philosophy from everybody," he said. "I was able to work with guys at different places, I felt like I made some good relationships."

And his coaching philosophy is as simple as what he likes to do.

"Win," he said.

Miles is a part of a transition for the Notre Dame offense, moving from an option-heavy game to a West Coast-style offense. But the Indiana native, who is finally back near his family, is ready for another coaching challenge.

"I always love a challenge," he said. "We're in this because of the challenges. If you didn't like challenges you wouldn't be coaching or playing."

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