Comments from Vols senior shows why Tennessee fans should feel confident that Joe Milton has improved
The worst moment of the Tennessee Vols' season came late in the blowout loss against South Carolina when QB Hendon Hooker tore his ACL. Losing to the Gamecocks essentially eliminated the Vols from the College Football Playoff. But worse than that was Hooker's injury. Hooker was one of the main reasons Tennessee won 10 regular […]
The worst moment of the Tennessee Vols' season came late in the blowout loss against South Carolina when QB Hendon Hooker tore his ACL.
Losing to the Gamecocks essentially eliminated the Vols from the College Football Playoff. But worse than that was Hooker's injury.
Hooker was one of the main reasons Tennessee won 10 regular season games this season for the first time in nearly 20 years.
Seeing his career as a Vol end with a devastating injury was absolutely brutal. Hooker still has a bright future, but he'll have to endure months of rehab to get ready for the NFL. It was an unfortunate ending to a wonderful two years on Rocky Top for Hooker.
There are no positives that come from Hooker's injury. But if you're looking for a silver lining, it's that QB Joe Milton gets a couple of games to get some live reps and prove that he's the guy for the Vols in 2023.
Milton started the 2021 season as Tennessee's starter. He was inconsistent at times against Bowling Green in last year's season opener before getting injured against Pittsburgh and losing the starting job to Hooker.
At times, Milton has looked brilliant. Other times, he's been inconsistent with overthrows and passes that lack "touch".
We haven't really seen Milton in extended action. We've only seen him in small snippets. He's played two entire games at Tennessee (Bowling Green in 2021 and Vanderbilt in 2022). And one of those games (Vandy) was a run-heavy game due to poor weather conditions. We truly don't know what Milton can or can't do as a season-long starter.
Against Clemson in the Orange Bowl, we'll get a better idea of what Milton can do against a premier defense. And that will obviously give Josh Heupel and his staff a good idea of whether or not Milton should be the guy in 2023.
There's been a lot of debate on social media in recent weeks about whether or not Milton can effectively run Heupel's offense and put up the same type of numbers that Tennessee put up this season.
I understand the concern. But I don't think it's fair to judge Milton based on what we saw at the start of last season.
It's important to remember that when Milton earned the starting job last year, everything at Tennessee was still new. Heupel and his assistants were still learning the players. Milton was new to Knoxville and still learning his teammates and the offense. It wasn't the same situation that it is right now.
And that was confirmed by comments from Vols senior tight end Jacob Warren this week during an appearance on "Off The Hook Sports" with Dave Hooker.
"Great energy, great presence," said Warren when asked about Milton. "Always is easy to be around him. Just because of the way that he attacks every day. I think now that he's almost been forced to, he's felt much more comfortable being that guy in the middle of the huddle. Being that guy that something's going on, just kind of encouraging everybody, saying like 'hey, let's lock in, let's focus here for these last couple of periods' or whatever it might be."
"Kind of seen him take that step that I knew he was ready to make," added Warren. "But just something that quite simply Hendon was doing before. And just seeing him and how he's, I guess, learned from Hendon in that way. Just being the guy that everyone looks to when we need some words or whatever it is. I think he's done a good job. I think he's ready to take the reins."
The Milton that will start in the Orange Bowl against Clemson isn't the same Milton that started against Bowling Green and Pittsburgh in 2021. He's become a more confident leader. And he's continued to work hard to improve his game.
Milton has the skillset to be a top-10 pick in the NFL draft one day. His physical abilities might be the most impressive of any player in college football. It's the consistency that's held him back. If Milton ever puts it all together, he'll be the best player in the nation.
The Orange Bowl matchup against Clemson will give us a great idea of whether or not he can play at an elite level. I don't know if he's going to look like the second coming of Cam Newton out there, but I do think we'll see a much better version of Milton than we saw last season.
Featured image via Jeff Blake-USA TODAY Sports
