Joe Milton breaks down off-field relationship with Hendon Hooker

Tennessee Volunteers quarterback Hendon hooker led the team to one of their best performances in recent history. Unfortunately, due to an ACL injury, he was unable to finish the journey. In steps backup quarterback and Hooker’s roommate Joe Milton to lead Tennessee to a 31-14 victory in the Orange Bowl over Clemson. After the game, Milton broke down his off-field relationship with Hooker.

“For me, me and him had lived together for this whole semester of school, so just watching film together every day. Enjoy these moments that we have; any play can be your last,” said Milton. “Every time we’d go home, we would pretty much just talk to game plan out. After we would talk it out, he would come back to my room at 1 a.m. saying, ‘I don’t really like that read. How do you feel about it?’ And we’ll talk about it, no matter what time it is. I mean, we’ll get up in the morning for meetings. But other than that, it just felt special. Having him up there, he put in a lot of work for this. If you want to be truthful, he got us here. So I had to get it done for him.”

All of their late-night studying paid off, especially for Milton in the Orange Bowl. The odds-on favorite to lead the Volunteers’ offense in 2023 picked apart one of the better defenses in college football. Milton completed 19 of his 28 pass attempts for 251 yards and three touchdowns and did not throw an interception in the game.

Hooker and Milton weigh in on Joey Halzle’s promotion to offensive coordinator

For Hendon Hooker, Joey Halzle was more than just a quarterbacks coach. For Joe Milton, his partnership with Halzle, Tennessee’s new offensive coordinator is just getting started. The two both weighed in on the promotion of Halzle on social media on Friday.

“Coach Halzle is a true mastermind of the game,” Hooker said, “and the best teacher I have been around. His promotion to offensive coordinator is well-deserved, and I am excited to see what’s next for the offense.”

“I couldn’t be more excited for Coach Halzle,” Milton said, “and look forward to the Joe-to-Joe connection. He has great knowledge of the game and someone we love going to battle with.”

It was announced on Thursday that Halzle, Tennessee’s quarterbacks coach the last two seasons and a longtime assistant coach under Josh Heupel, had been promoted to offensive coordinator. He replaces Alex Golesh, who left in early December to become the new head coach at South Florida.