Watch: Joe Milton III throws football 80-plus yards
Tennessee quarterback Joe Milton III went viral back in December when he threw an orange 100-plus yards ahead of the Vols playing Clemson in the Capital One Orange Bowl. He can throw a football almost as far.
Video on social media last week showed Milton at the Steve Clarkson QB Retreat in California throwing a football more than 80 yards, then following the throw with a standing backflip.
The video came from Steve Clarkson’s Instagram account, showing Milton taking a couple steps forward before launching the football from the 20-yard line. The ball was in the air for five seconds before coming down on the far goal line.
Smooth 80+ yard pass from Joe Milton nbd pic.twitter.com/gT3nxDjXgr
— Unnecessary Roughness (@UnnecRoughness) May 28, 2023
Tennessee in December published a video on Twitter showing Milton on Tennessee’s practice field after a bowl practice, heaving an orange over 100 yards before it hit a wall on the sideline of Haslam Field, Tennessee’s practice field at the Anderson Training Complex.
Milton would go on to lead Tennessee to a 31-14 win over Clemson in the Orange Bowl at Hard Rock Stadium a little over a week later. He was named the game’s MVP after throwing for 251 yards and three touchdowns.
Last season he passed for 971 yards and 10 touchdowns, completing 65 percent of his passes over nine games. But his opportunities were mainly limited to mop-up duty behind Hendon Hooker, before Hooker was lost to a torn ACL in November.
Milton started in Tennessee’s 56-0 win in the regular-season finale at Vanderbilt a week after Hooker’s season-ending injury, throwing for 147 yards and a touchdown while the Vols rushed for 362 yards and six touchdowns as a team.
Josh Heupel: Joe Milton ‘consistent with his reads’ during spring practice
Milton, who transferred to Tennessee from Michigan two years ago, won the Vols’ open quarterback competition before the 2021 season, when Josh Heupel and his staff was newly hired at Tennessee. But Milton’s ankle injury in Week 2 against Pitt opened the door for Heupel, who took over the job and never let go.
Milton, a former four-star prospect in the 2018 recruiting cycle out of Olympia High School in Orlando, Fla., is now poised to take over for Hooker as Tennessee’s starting quarterback in 2023, ahead of five-star freshman Nico Iamaleava.
“If you talk about just the football player,” Heupel said after Tennessee’s annual Orange & White Game in April, “I think it starts with understanding of what we’re doing, understanding defenses, being consistent with his reads.
“Then pair that with growth fundamentally, getting his feet in the ground, being in a consistent positive position to be able to deliver a football from the ground up. You pair those things together, and he’s able to grow.”
