By CHRIS DUNCAN
AP Sports Writer

COLLEGE STATION, Texas (AP) --  About once a week, Texas A&M
junior sack specialist Von Miller checks in with the man who
holds the record he's chasing.

The 6-foot-3, 240-pound Miller leads the nation with 13 1/2
sacks as the Aggies (5-3, 2-2 Big 12) head into Saturday's game
at Colorado (2-6, 1-3). He needs seven more sacks to pass the
Texas A&M single-season mark of 20, set by defensive end Jacob
Green in 1979.

Green now works for the school's athletic fundraising foundation
and has an office at Kyle Field. Miller's father, also named
Von, asked Green to mentor his son when he arrived at A&M in
2007, and Green happily obliged.

The two talk about football, school and life, and Miller tries
to absorb every word from Green, who played 13 seasons in the
NFL. Naturally, the record has been a topic of conversation
lately, but Miller gets the feeling that Green wants him to
break it as much as anyone.

"He's pushing me a little bit," Miller said. "It feels good to
have him on my team, instead of against me, I guess."

The Aggies have four games left in the regular season, and Green
hopes he's the first person to congratulate Miller when he sets
a new mark.

"If anybody's going to do it, I'd love to see Von do it," Green
said. "It's been a long time for that record. And if Von breaks
that record, that means the Aggies are being successful and we
all want that football team to be successful. That's a big part
of it."

Texas A&M is still a long way from the glory days of the
"Wrecking Crew," the label earned by the program's dominant
defenses of the 1980s and '90s. This year's Aggies rank last in
the Big 12 in scoring defense (30 points per game) and total
defense (401 yards per game).

But Miller has emerged as a standout from the "jack" position, a
blend of defensive end and linebacker that allows him to roam
along the line, attack from different angles and utilize his
speed to break into the backfield.

"I really just react to what's going on," Miller said. "I just
line up and go."

Miller compiled 5 1/2 sacks and 66 total tackles as a linebacker
in his first two seasons. He told the coaching staff after last
season that he was ready to do whatever was necessary to have a
breakout year in 2009.

"He's been a different person since last winter," defensive
coordinator Joe Kines said. "He says, 'Coach, I made a decision,
I made a decision to get better.' There's a great lesson in life
right there."

Miller focused on each day, each workout, and resisted the urge
to look too far ahead, at records or the NFL dreams he started
having in middle school.

"I just pushed myself to finish every rep, to finish every run,"
Miller said. "I knew that if I didn't cut any corners, I could
get a lot better in the offseason.

"I just didn't want to be mediocre," he said. "Why practice, why
train, why do all that running, if you're not going to try to be
the best? Why would you put in all that work if you're just
trying to be average?

Coach Mike Sherman said Miller went through a "growing-up
period" in the spring and summer, and seemed transformed when he
arrived at fall camp. It showed immediately - Miller recorded
eight sacks in A&M's first three games, leading the Aggies to
easy victories.

"He's come a long way from where he was a year ago," Sherman
said. "That plays as much as anything in his development. Scheme
is scheme. We try to utilize him and highlight his talent, but
at the same time he's taken hold of that and ran with it. If he
hadn't done that, then the scheme wouldn't have mattered."

Miller has three sacks in the last two games, both victories. He
has 15 1/2 tackles for loss this season, which ranks fourth
nationally.

Opponents have geared blocking schemes toward stopping him, and
Miller doesn't seem fazed.

"I've seen teams put a tackle and a guard on him, sometimes they
put a tight end out there to help, just to chip him and throw
him off," Green said. "He doesn't seem bothered or doesn't seem
to realize it, because he's just out there playing and he's just
working so hard to get in there."

Green said most of the NFL's greatest pass rushers developed
three isolated moves to get past linemen. He says Miller has two
down pat - a speedy, outside rush and a quick inside maneuver.
Green would like to see Miller add a spin move to his
repertoire.

"I honestly don't think he's reached his full potential yet,"
Green said. "If he hangs around one more year, gets a little
stronger, I don't think there are too many guys in college
football who'll be able to block him."

Miller is sticking with his day-to-day approach, trying his best
to put Green's record and the lure of the NFL out of his mind.

It's all worked well for him so far, he says, so why change
anything?

"If I perform to the best of my ability at every practice and on
every play, I won't look back and have any regrets," Miller
said. "If I take it play by play, and I gave maximum effort on
every play, I can live with that. If I play to my full
potential, if I take advantage of every opportunity I have here
in front of me, the outcome will be what I want it to be."