Joe Milton out to prove he’s ready for prime time as Tennessee seeks first win in The Swamp since 2003

rewrite this content material with complete duration and stay HTML tags No force, Joe Milton, however that is on you. No. 11 Tennessee visits Florida on Saturday sporting a next-big-thing recognition in the SEC. Last 12 months’s 11-win season fueled the hype — and now not simply in Neyland Stadium. Suddenly, the Volunteers have the trainer (Josh Heupel), the momentum and the roster to make a big transfer in the SEC … possibly even nationally. That is a glimpse of Tennessee’s doable.Now, about Milton, do the Vols have the quarterback?”We’ll get Knoxville back rocking again,” Milton promised ahead of the season. This is Milton’s second towards the Gators for numerous causes. The 6-foot-5, 235-pound Michigan switch has ridden a bodily and emotional curler coaster. Two years in the past, he beat out Hendon Hooker to be Tennessee’s starter. Then in the season’s moment sport as starter, Milton suffered an ankle harm.That opened the door for Hooker to turn into a legend as he led the Vols to a leap forward 2022, their very best season in greater than twenty years. Meanwhile, Milton had nearly been Wally Pipp’d. It wasn’t till an ACL harm finishing Hooker’s season overdue in the marketing campaign that Milton were given again at the box as a starter. Milton stepped up matching a career-high by way of throwing 3 touchdowns towards Clemson in the Orange Bowl. That raised the stakes for Tennessee and Milton himself in 2023. “One of the great things [was] Hendon not being there for the bowl game,” Heupel stated. “That’s not a great thing, obviously. The positives that came out [were important].”There used to be indubitably about Milton’s standing this 12 months. The dude is QB1. He can throw it to the moon. The best query: Can he hit the moon? OK, possibly that is too harsh for a 59% profession passer. Still, it is completely becoming to point out it’s Florida week. There is indubitably Tennessee will have to be preferred in spite of shedding 9 directly throughout twenty years in The Swamp. The Vols opened as 7-point favorites.If they’re going to satisfy that next-big-thing label, Milton will have to take your next step. The sport is Milton’s moment highway get started at Tennessee. The first used to be final 12 months at Vanderbilt.This one way extra — a lot more. The final time the Vols beat the Gators in Gainesville, Heupel used to be a graduate assistant at Oklahoma. Tennessee has now not crushed Florida in back-to-back seasons since 2003-04. At 1-1, the Gators already glance wounded, possibly on their approach to a 3rd consecutive shedding season for the first time since 1945-47. “Yesterday has nothing to do with today,” Heupel warned this week.These are bizarre and exciting days at Tennessee. Milton comes into the Florida sport with out an interception in his final 239 throws (going again to his Michigan days). That’s the second-longest streak in the rustic. The final time he threw a pick out used to be towards Wisconsin 3 years in the past. Those Badgers have been quarterbacked by way of Graham Mertz, now the Gators’ starter. If there may be going to be any other turnaround — this one by way of the SEC — it begins with Tennessee. The league heads into Week 3 with a 3-6 report towards Power Five groups in nonconference play. That’s the SEC’s worst such report thru two weeks since 2003. No. 10 Alabama is 1-1 for the first time since 2003. No. 14 LSU — at Mississippi State this week — were given blown out by way of No. 3 Florida State. No. 22 Miami simply hung probably the most issues on Texas A&M in a regular-season sport (48) since 2016.  The ACC is 4-1 towards the SEC. It’s now not time to panic, however best as soon as this century has a convention performed a minimum of 5 video games towards the SEC and completed with higher than .720 profitable proportion (Big East, .800, 2012). Meanwhile, the Vols have finished what has been anticipated albeit towards subpar pageant. Coming off probably the most correct season in Tennessee historical past (68.7% finishing touch price as a staff), Milton hasn’t moderately damaged out but in 2022. There have been a minimum of part a dozen dropped passes final week towards Austin Peay. The maximum a hit pink zone staff when it got here to scoring touchdowns in 2022 went 0 for 3 towards the Governors. “It’s the ‘want to,'” Hooker stated of Milton. “He has the want to. That’s one of the biggest things that a lot of people don’t have — to go the extra mile. We were on vacation, Fourth of July. We were down in Houston. We still got work in.”That celebrated holiday incorporated a keep on the house Trent Williams, the 49ers offensive lineman who performed below Heupel at Oklahoma (quarterbacks trainer 2006-10). It additionally incorporated offensive take on John Campbell, huge receiver Dont’e Thornton, defensive finish Tyler Baron and defensive again Wesley Walker.”Hendon played his role,” Milton stated of the quarterback who helped raise Tennessee soccer. “Things happen as a man. What are you going to do when that adversity hit? You’ve got to smile and live through it.” The QBs stay pals and allies, however just one has confirmed himself. The next-big-thing now has the level. 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