Boise State QB commit CJ Tiller nearly gave football up for good
RANCHO CUCAMONGA, Calif. (BVM) – CJ Tiller is a three-star quarterback committed to play in the Mountain West Conference at Boise State, but just a few years ago, his health required him to think about a future without football.
Crohn’s disease is a type of inflammatory bowel disease that causes inflammation of the digestive tract which can lead to abdominal pain, fatigue, weight loss and malnutrition. The disease kept Tiller off the football field from fifth grade through the eighth grade.
“Doctors were telling me how severe of a case I had and things weren’t really playing out the way we wanted,” Tiller said. “My family and I had a discussion and we didn’t know if football was going to be the route.
“I started looking at other professions and now I really want to be a doctor so when I go to school, I’m going to be a GI (gastrointestinal) doctor just because of my disease. But that’s something I was looking into because I didn’t think football was going to be the way for me.”
During this period of severe uncertainty, Tiller’s fate flipped on October 15, 2018. He remembers the exact date because it was the “biggest surgery” of his life, literally and figuratively.
The procedure didn’t improve Tiller’s condition right away, he said, but things began to progressively change for the better from that point.
“That’s kind of when I realized that I might have a shot of playing again,” Tiller said. “So, really, my freshman year was my first true year of playing football and the rest is history from there.”
For anybody who watched Tiller on the gridiron last fall, there was no telling that he played his first official season of football just two years prior. He completed 68% of his passes for 2,458 yards and 27 touchdowns as a junior for Williams Field High School. Tiller threw for at least three touchdowns on five separate occasions and led the Blackhawks to a 10-3 record.
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The 6-foot-3 QB credits the team’s elite chemistry for a productive season that had state championship potential.
“I think we had one of the deepest and purest connections on and off the field with each other,” Tiller said of the Blackhawks’ 2021 season. “We had great talent, I could name off several guys who are going to play Division I football, but it wasn’t that. We all clicked on a different level and we played together.
“Nobody was an individual because that’s what a lot of teams will do these days. You get a five-star guy on your team and you depend on him. We had three- and four-star guys on our team and we all looked at each other as ‘no stars’ and played for each other and that’s what wins football games.”
Tiller will have to work hard to recreate the culture he helped build at Williams Field after transferring to Rancho Cucamonga (CA) this offseason for his senior year. It’ll be a tall task to acclimate himself into a new state, school and team, but part of what makes Tiller an elite QB is his natural leadership.
“I think something that separates me from a lot of other guys is my leadership and I talk about this and act upon it differently than everybody else,” Tiller said. “There’s something about me on the field when you watch me that I have control of every situation and I never let the moment get too big.
“When I came in there (Rancho), I knew I could become that leader right away and I think guys gravitated towards me pretty easily. It’s building a culture now for the younger kids and the younger classes that come through the next couple of years. I want to create that culture and do everything differently than what they’ve done the last couple of years and change it up in our own way.”
The move from Gilbert, Arizona to Rancho Cucamonga, California was prompted by Tiller’s father who is a custom home designer. Instead of being apart for weeks at a time while Tiller’s father works on homes in Southern California, the family decided to make the move to San Bernardino County.
The Cougars, who finished 6-6 last season under first-year head coach Brian Hildebrand, will now feature a Division I QB in Tiller who still has plenty of facets of his game he wants to refine. One of those areas is playing within the offense more rather than relying heavily on his innate ability to create plays out of the pocket and off schedule.
“Something I really want to improve upon this year is staying true to my reads, seeing the full field and trusting everybody is going to get to their spot, especially coming over to a new team with great athletes,” Tiller said. “I want everybody on my team to win so whatever I have to do to put us in that position, that’s what I’ll do.
“I think we have a very high-ceiling team this year where we can do a lot of great things in California and shock the state.”
Tiller has one final high school football season left before his time in the Mountain West commences and he couldn’t be any more excited for it.
Despite early offers from Northern Arizona, San Jose State and Utah State with many more likely to come, Tiller shut down his recruiting early following a visit to Boise State in the spring. The Arizona native immediately fell in love with the natural beauty of Boise and the kindness of its people.
Tiller’s father made the 15-hour drive from Arizona to Boise for the visit and once Bronco fans realized who his son was, they paid for his gas.
“To me, I was like, ‘Wow, that’s ridiculous; that’s crazy,’” Tiller said of the nice gesture from Boise State fans. “It shows a lot about the fanbase here and as I grew on Twitter and built that connection with the community of Boise, it was just like you can’t beat it.
“I’m not a guy that’s chasing 30-plus offers and wanting all these things, you know, I’ve been an underdog my whole life so why don’t I just shut my recruiting down and commit? I have everything I need in a football program right there. They’re letting me play my style and that’s all I can ask for so I didn’t want to sit back and wait for 18 more offers to come in. I’m not going to wait back and try to get all this fame; it’s not me.”
Tiller is the first QB the Broncos offered in the current cycle and the first pledge in Boise State’s 2023 class. He’ll be counted on to help the Broncos build a strong group after they finished 7-5 (5-3 MWC) a season ago.
Stacking Mountain West titles is at the forefront of Tiller’s mind when the time comes, but he’s also focused on continuing to hone his craft.
“The biggest thing that I’ve been told by someone is don’t become a thrower; there’s a lot of throwers in the world, but there’s not a lot of quarterbacks and there’s a fine line difference between a thrower and a quarterback,” Tiller said. “I think that’s what Coach (Tim) Plough is going to transform me into.
“I’m becoming a quarterback but there’s so much to learn about the game that a lot of people think they know it all already but I don’t think I know anything at all. I have the basics down and I think I know a lot more than a lot of high school quarterbacks, but Coach Plough is really, really going to harp on pushing me to become a quarterback and that’s what I love.”
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