If Tennessee quarterback Joe Milton III played his final game as a Vol Saturday night against Vanderbilt, he went out in style.
The sixth-year senior had a career day against the Commodores, completing 22 of 32 passes for 383 yards and four touchdowns while adding 11 yards and two more touchdowns on five carries in the Vols’ 48-24 win over Vandy.
Milton has had an up-and-down season and sometimes significantly struggled, but he was nearly perfect against the Commodores. Milton made several good-to-great throws and found open receivers on multiple occasions. The Florida native threw two touchdowns to Ramel Keyton, who had a season-high 122 yards, and found top wideout Squirrel White 10 times for 110 yards.
Milton’s six-touchdown performance was historic, too, as he became the first UT quarterback since Jonathan Crompton in 2009 vs. Memphis to account for six scores. Only one Tennessee quarterback has accounted for seven touchdowns in a game (Erik Ainge–all passing), so Milton joins multiple Vols tied for second on the list.
“Proud of his resiliency,” Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel said about Milton following the win. “Continue to prepare, fight and compete extremely well. He was really good throughout the course of the football game. Decisive, was in the right spot, and recognized coverage. Just some really good things. Had some guys out on the perimeter make plays.
“For most of it, the protection was really pretty solid. There were a couple times it broke down. He stood in and made some plays and prior of the effort from the offensive line, obviously that group was extremely beat up.”
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Saturday night may not have been Milton’s final game as a Vol, as he can still participate in Tennessee’s bowl game. But if freshman Nico Iamaleava does start in whichever bowl game Tennessee plays in, and Milton’s performance against Vanderbilt was his last in orange, it’s hard to argue it wasn’t his best.
Granted, Vanderbilt is a much lesser opponent than most. They finished 2-10 with an 0-8 SEC record. Joe Milton’s Orange Bowl performance of 256 total yards and three touchdowns against an 11-2 Clemson may hold a torch to the Vanderbilt performance given the difficulty of the opponent and the magnitude of the game. But the numbers are hard to overlook.
Milton’s six total touchdowns are a career-high, his four passing touchdowns are a career-high, and his 383 passing yards are a career-high. Using ‘career-high’ three times when talking about one performance doesn’t happen often.
While Milton won’t be back at Tennessee next year, it was still encouraging to see him finally play a complete, clean game to cap off a three-year career on Rocky Top and six-year NCAA career.
“You go out with a bang,” Milton said when reflecting on his performance. “Every game you try to do that and the most important one is the last one inside the stadium. You show a team that that’s how we play when we get inside this stadium. That’s the legacy that I am going to hold on to.”
