Tennessee football has the luxury of not having a new face at quarterback in the 2023 season.
While Milton was not the starter for the majority of the past two seasons, he has started four games for the Volunteers and is entering his third year with the program. So, there is a lot of familiarity with who’s going to be under center for the Vols this fall.
The rest of the SEC cannot say the same, especially the teams towards the top of the league.
Georgia, Alabama, Kentucky, Florida, and potentially Ole Miss and Auburn will all have different starting quarterbacks this year, and Georgia is the only school who’s starter was with the team last year. This is all assuming Spencer Sanders wins the job in Oxford and Payton Thorne pulls away to win the job in Auburn.
Alabama will likely roll with Notre Dame transfer Tyler Buchner as their starting quarterback. Kentucky has NC State transfer Devin Leary as the bona-fide starter, and Florida seems to be going with Wisconsin transfer Graham Mertz as QB1.
All of the turnover in the SEC gives Tennessee an edge at the QB spot, but the question still remains: should Joe Milton be in the consideration as a top-tier SEC QB?
It’s hard to make the argument that he’s top three entering this fall, as LSU’s Jayden Daniels, Arkansas’ KJ Jefferson and Mississippi State’s Will Rogers are all very solid, but the argument for top five is a strong one.
In the latest High & Tight presented by Gambuzza’s Barbershop, Rocky Top Insider takes a look at the advantages Milton has over some of the other SEC quarterbacks and how strong his case is for being considered a top-tier SEC quarterback entering this season.
