Teary-eyed prep football star nearly quit. Now, UNC, NC State are fighting for him.

Last fall, Charlotte Country Day all-state offensive lineman Triston MIller was ready to give up on high school football.

Many of his friends were getting college scholarship offers. Miller, 18, was writing emails and inboxing coaches on Twitter every day, begging for any kind of attention.

He wasn't getting anything.

"I was really getting frustrated," Miller said. "I would say, 'Watch out for me this year. I've improved since my sophomore year.' And I was always waiting for a response.

"It made me question if I should keep playing."

Last fall, a couple of friends Miller grew up playing with committed to college the same day. Miller checked his email and social media inboxes. Nothing.

Daryl Miller, Triston's father, knew something was wrong as the two rode home from practice.

“He played with a couple kids on (a youth team) and they had gotten offers one day last fall,” Daryl Miller said. “One, in particular, got an offer from Miami, and Triston sat there and he was happy for him, but then he stopped talking. I’m like, ‘What’s wrong with Triston?’ He said he just wanted to be left alone.”

Daryl Miller looked over and saw his son, 6-foot-6 and 270 pounds, with a face full of tears. When they got home, Triston’s mother ran out and hugged him, telling him to be patient. Daryl Miller said he dropped his head.

“I felt bad,” Daryl Miller said. “It was like, ‘He’s losing faith in all this.’ I was very worried. You look at social media and you think, ‘What is my kid not doing?’ And you see him crying in the car and you can’t fix it. All you can do is keep telling him the same thing he gets tired of hearing, ‘Be patient.’ How many times can you tell your kid that until he doubts it? It’s like, ‘Is this really ever going to happen?’”

For Triston Miller, it happened in September, early in his junior season. He got his first offer from Duke. Next, Wake Forest offered. A few weeks after that, Miller committed to the Deacons.

A few weeks after that, his recruitment took off.

Miller decommitted from Wake Forest and offers poured in from schools such as Charlotte, East Carolina, Liberty, Maryland and Tennessee. In early February, Miller received offers from Georgia Tech, Purdue and West Virginia the same day.

“It was surreal,” Daryl Miller said. “I would never have dreamed this would happen, you know? I’m at a loss for words, actually. I’m very proud of him.”

Miller missed the final three games of the season with a concussion, but coaches had obviously seen enough.

Today, Miller has 20 offers. He took an official visit to North Carolina Friday and said he'll take an official visit to N.C. State June 22.

Miller plans to sign during the early signing period in December. He said his final five schools are Arkansas, Kentucky, Maryland, North Carolina and N.C. State.

Rivals.com ranks Miller as the No. 25 overall recruit in North Carolina for the class of 2019 and the No. 1 offensive lineman in his class. It's a far cry from where he was nine months ago, crying in his father's car.

"Triston's done a lot of good work," Country Day coach Drew Witman said. "But what I'm most impressed with is his leadership and his ability to embrace his quote stardom within the school. .... He's done a great job with this recruiting process, which is a little bit out of control, at the highest level. It's a blessing to help him with it."

Witman said he always knew MIller would be heavily recruited, citing his size and quick feet for a player so big.

Miller, he said, played offensive guard as a ninth-grader on junior varsity, then played defensive tackle as a sophomore. Witman moved Miller to right tackle last season, and once college coaches saw him playing there, the offers began to flow.

"For him," Witman said, "a lot of it was a conversation we had about college and where his future was with his length and quick feet. That helped him embrace it, knowing this move would help with college."

Miller missed his team's three-game run to the N.C. Independent Schools Division II championship game last season after he slipped during a practice drill, banged helmets with a teammate and suffered a concussion. He said missing time, the college attention and watching Charlotte Latin celebrate a 33-0 win over his Bucs in the state final, have given him added motivation for what he says is going to be a special senior season.

"It's all made me really hungry," Miller said. "It was hard seeing Latin celebrate after they beat us and I felt like I could've helped. Having missed those games, it showed me you can't take any games for granted. It just made me want to play this game even more."