Vols quarterback Joe Milton pushes back on Tennessee Football narrative
Tennessee Vols quarterback Joe Milton, who is participating in the Senior Bowl this week, doesn't buy the narrative that quarterbacks in UT's offense don't have to read defenses/coverages. That's a narrative that's been popular among NFL draft analysts since Josh Heupel took over as Tennessee's head coach in 2021. "Based off our offense, people think […]
Tennessee Vols quarterback Joe Milton, who is participating in the Senior Bowl this week, doesn't buy the narrative that quarterbacks in UT's offense don't have to read defenses/coverages.
That's a narrative that's been popular among NFL draft analysts since Josh Heupel took over as Tennessee's head coach in 2021.
"Based off our offense, people think that we don't read coverages or we don't know how to read coverages, just because we [use] tempo and go so fast," said Milton this week in an interview with Tennessee Titans announcer (and UT grad) Mike Keith. "But man, we have QB school in the summers. They're actually going over QB school right now. I talk with Nico (Iamaleava) pretty much every other day when I got time. They're going over QB school right now, going over coverages. Teams that don't think we don't study coverages or study how to operate against a defense, they'll be wrong."
If anything, Tennessee's quarterbacks should be more adept at reading coverages/defenses because of the way the Vols' offense operates under Josh Heupel.
“Our guys control everything," said Heupel last spring. "I don’t think there’s anybody in America that puts more on their quarterbacks. Run-run checks, run-pass checks, loaded boxes, alerts, kills, they’ve got to do it all."
Because of Tennessee's tempo, it's on the quarterbacks in Heupel's system to quickly diagnose what kind of look the defense is presenting and then make the right decision, whether that's on an RPO or a choice route. It's far from "easy".
Tennessee's offense might be different, but it still effectively prepares quarterbacks for the next level.
Former Tennessee Vols LB/coach Kevin Steele speaks freely on NIL after retiring from college football
Kevin Steele can talk a little more freely these days
