Why Tennessee enters the 2023 season with a lot of 'boom' potential

Many eyes are on the Tennessee Volunteers this upcoming season as head coach Josh Heupel and his squad look to continue building on their impressive season ago. There’s no doubt the Vols lost some talented players, but On3’s JD PicKell still believes Tennessee has the chance to make a lot of noise heading into the 2023 season.

“Let’s talk about just the all-encompassing view of this team, because I think it needs to be said, there is a very high boom factor when it comes to Tennessee,” PicKell said.

Tennessee had five players selected in this year’s NFL Draft from last year’s team, including some key offense difference makers, which have many skeptical about if the Volunteers can replicate their success from last season, especially on the offensive side of the ball where the strength of their team resided.

“Hendon Hooker‘s gone, Jalin Hyatt‘s gone, some people outside of the Tennessee circles are saying great, Tennessee is going to really fall off now. They’re going to go back to winning seven games and Josh Heupel got lucky having Hendon Hooker and Jalin Hyatt, but that’s not who they’re going to be long-term,” PicKell said speaking for Tennessee’s doubters.

But one of the most talked about players on Tennessee’s roster this offseason has been quarterback Joe Milton, the backup from a season ago that took over for an injured Hooker at the end of the season who’s expected to be the Vols’ starter this upcoming season.

“Well Joe Milton steps into there and there’s a lot of people that they understand he’s not Hendon Hooker, but he’s also got some tools Hendon Hooker didn’t have,” PicKell said. “Like Joe Milton can sling the rock, and it doesn’t translate to the football field necessarily, but y’all saw him throw that orange like 90 yards. Now you don’t play football with oranges, but I’m just saying, the arm strength on this cat is riding.”

Milton is a veteran QB that was a four-star quarterback out of Olympia high school in Florida where he was ranked within the top 20 quarterbacks in the country for the 2018 class according to On3’s Industry Ranking. He spent the first two seasons of his career at Michigan before transferring to Tennessee and serving predominantly as a backup.

He closed out the season last year for the Volunteers, leading them to wins in their regular season finale versus Vanderbilt and their Orange Bowl matchup with Clemson following Hooker’s season-ending injury. And there’s no doubt that a lot of Tennessee’s success next season will hinge on if he can continue leading them to wins in 2023.

“Really big frame, very durable, good athlete, like there’s a lot he brings to the table here and there’s a lot for Tennessee when it comes to what they’re going to do in 2023 that resides with Joe Milton and him being that dude,” PicKell said.