Joe Milton was Tennessee’s great unknown entering the Vols’ Orange Bowl matchup with Clemson. After Milton struggled as Tennessee’s starter in 2021, Josh Heupel inserted Hendon Hooker at quarterback and Milton became his backup.
Milton’s improvement was clear when he relieved Hooker in lopsided games last season. The former Michigan transfer got his big chance after Hooker tore his ACL in Tennessee’s loss at South Carolina. Josh Heupel asked little of his big armed quarterback in a 56-0 win over Vanderbilt on a rainy November night, but that wasn’t the case against the ACC Champions.
Milton delivered the best performance of his career, completing 19-of-28 passes for 251 yards and three touchdowns in the Vols’ 31-14 win over Clemson. Ahead of the 2023 season, Milton broke down his performance in the Orange Bowl with VFL Films’ Sarah Detwiler.
While Milton is entrenched as Tennessee’s starting quarterback entering the 2023 season, that was unclear entering the Orange Bowl. There was an abundance of pressure on Milton entering the game, but the veteran signal caller didn’t feel like he had anything to prove to the outside world ahead of the matchup.
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“As a person, once you feel like you’ve got to prove something I feel like everything else goes out the window,” Milton told Detwiler. “I feel like I had something to prove to myself, you could say that, yes. But to other people? No.”
The 6-foot-5 quarterback went on to analyze all three touchdowns he threw in the Orange Bowl including his reads and progressions on the plays.
Milton also touched on his chemistry with veteran receiver Ramel Keyton, who he found for 46-yard fourth quarter touchdown that all but put Clemson away.
“Ever since I got here, Ramel wasn’t a starter so I was able to throw to Ramel when I first got here,” Milton said. “I was just so connected with understanding his routes and understanding our offense and what the coaches wanted. I knew he understood. I knew everything that he wanted to do, I was able to do as well.”
Check out the full interview below.
The chemistry between between QB and WR is 🔑
Safe to say we are feeling pretty good the connection ours have with each other!#GBO 🍊 pic.twitter.com/zpJtEPBdq3
— Tennessee Football (@Vol_Football) August 19, 2023
