Josh Heupel impressed by Joe Milton's accuracy

There is a lot of excitement surrounding Tennessee Volunteers quarterback Joe Milton. After all, he can throw the ball a mile and will be in the explosive Josh Heupel offense. Still, there are those who have concerns about Milton’s accuracy as a passer.

Heupel has shot down those concerns, though, speaking about how impressed he’s been with Milton’s accuracy in Fall Camp.

“He was really accurate with the football, really decisive,” Josh Heupel said. “Been a really good decision maker. I don’t know if he’s thrown a pick all training camp.”

In five previous seasons at both Michigan and Tennessee, Joe Milton has played in 30 games. That includes winning the Orange Bowl for Tennessee last season. Still, his career completion percentage is still just 57.8 percent. However, in 2022 he had a 64.6 completion percentage, so there has been development and growth.

“Been in control of the protections for the most part,” Heupel said. “We’ve continued to push their hand on that side of it. That’s Joe, but that’s the guys behind him right now too and I think they’ve continued to grow in that way.”

Accuracy matters for a quarterback but so does decision making. As Milton explained at SEC Media Days, that’s been a major focus for Tennessee’s quarterbacks.

“We preach it every day in the quarterback room. [Offensive coordinator Joey] Halzle preaches it a lot — don’t just outcome decision-making. Have a reason for everything you’re doing. Whatever it takes in our offense if we have a play to the left or to the right, have a reason for going anyway that you choose,” Milton said.

“Go through your read and take care of the [football] like you [take care of] a family. Approach it the same way and attack that play. Go hard, go 100 percent the whole time. Because if you’re wrong, be 100 percent wrong. Attack it at the same speed as if you were right.”

Joe Milton downplayed personal hype

There’s no denying that the hype around Joe Milton is massive. It would be easy for Milton to just sit back and enjoy, but he’d rather downplay that hype and focus on winning.

“I mean, it’s cool. It’s cool and all, but y’all know me; I’m not that type of person to fall into that type of stuff,” said Milton.

“No. To be honest with you, I don’t. I mean, you see it. You can’t not see it; it’s on social media everywhere. If you go on a sports page, you see my face. It’s cool and all. But at the same time, you have to understand what the main thing is. The main thing is winning. So why not focus on that?”