Joe Milton III: Vols have 'three rings to chase' in 2023
When BetOnline announced its 2023 Heisman Trophy odds back in January, just after the 2022 college football season had ended, Joe Milton III was tied for seventh on the list at 20/1 odds.
North Carolina quarterback Drake Maye was the favorite at 5/1. USC’s Caleb Williams had 6/1 odds to repeat as the Heisman winner. Florida State quarterback Jordan Travis was 10/1 and Oregon’s Bo Nix was 12/1, along with Washington’s Michael Penix Jr. and Notre Dame transfer quarterback Sam Hartman.
On Tuesday morning, during an appearance on NFL Network’s ‘Good Morning Football’ in New York, Milton was asked about the Heisman conversation and if he pays it any attention.
“I mean, I seen it once before,” Milton admitted.
But seeing it once was it for Tennessee’s new starting quarterback.
“To me personally,” Milton said, “I don’t look at it just because we’ve got other things in mind, a goal that we want to achieve as a team. Whatever goals I may have, that’s not the goals I want to achieve right now because the team is more important than I am. It’s all about the team at this point.”
Joe Milton III passed for 971 yards, 10 TDs last season
Milton won Tennessee’s open quarterback battle in fall camp before the 2021 season, but an ankle injury in a Week 2 loss to Pittsburgh at Neyland Stadium opened the door for Hendon Hooker to take over.
Hooker passed for 6,080 yards, 58 touchdowns and five interceptions over the last two seasons. Last fall he was a Heisman Trophy frontrunner while leading Tennessee to an 8-0 start and a No. 1 ranking the first College Football Playoff Top 25 of the season.
He finished fifth in the final voting for the trophy, after suffering a torn ACL in November and missing Tennessee’s final two games of the season. He ended the year passing for 3,135 yards, 27 touchdowns and just two interceptions, completing 69.6 percent of his passes.
Now the assumption is that Milton will pick up right where Hooker left off.
Milton took over at quarterback in the regular-season finale at Vanderbilt, after Hooker was hurt the week before at South Carolina, and led Tennessee to the 31-14 win over Clemson in the Orange Bowl in Miami in December.
He completed 19 of 28 passes for 251 yards and three touchdowns to win the Orange Bowl MVP. For the season, Milton completed 53 of 82 passes for 971 yards and 10 touchdowns, playing mostly in mop-up duty behind Hooker before the season-ending injury.
‘If we’re winning, it’s just going to take care of itself’
Tennessee’s 56-0 win at Vanderbilt in November gave the Vols 10 wins in the regular season for the first time since 2003. The win in the Orange Bowl made it an 11-win season for the first time since 2001.
That’s where Milton is trying to pick up where Tennessee left off last season, winning more games and ignoring individual awards.
“We’ve got three rings to chase for,” Milton said. “Everything else is just (something that) falls in place. If the Heisman comes up, then it comes up. But if we’re winning, it’s just going to take care of itself.”
He’s not worried about being mentioned in the top tier of quarterbacks in college football entering the summer, either.
“No,” Milton said Tuesday of NFL Network. “To be honest with you, that’s been my whole life. Even in high school I wasn’t a top guy. Make it happen.”
