Tennessee football: Five Vols who suffered from no spring game
839. Scouting Report. Pick Analysis. Quarterback. player. 3. Senior. Joe Milton III
6’5″ 245 pounds
Remember, Joe Milton III was Josh Heupel’s top choice at quarterback last year after he transferred from the Michigan Wolverines. When Heupel was offensive coordinator of the Missouri Tigers, he recruited Milton out of Florida’s Palm Beach County. Then he coached in Orlando just as Milton was finishing up there.
Anyway, Milton did win Tennessee football’s starting job last year. The Pahokee, Fla., kid who went to Olympia High School in Orange County is clearly mobile and has a big arm. Accuracy was always the question surrounding him, but he showed enough in practice to win the job.
That carried over into this spring even with Tayven Jackson breathing down his neck. Of course Milton is competing to be Hendon Hooker’s backup, but doing that could position him to start in 2023. All signs point to Milton’s accuracy getting even better, and that showed with a beautiful deep ball touchdown pass he had in the open scrimmage.
However, the question surrounding Milton is if he can maintain that accuracy while under the lights. An open scrimmage gets there partially, but he then had two more weeks of practice before the time the spring game could have taken place. He lost his job for his play under the lights, so he needed the spring game to at least show he’s improved on why he lost that job.