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WATCH: Joe Milton heaves 40-yard Tennessee touchdown

SimonGibbs_UserImageby:Simon Gibbs•09/02/21•

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In his first-career game for the Tennessee Volunteers, quarterback Joe Milton did a little bit of everything.

Milton had 140 passing yards and a touchdown, completing 11 of 23 passes in his debut. Although his completion percentage is far from perfect, the Michigan transfer has shown a balanced attack in his first game at Tennessee’s Neyland Stadium — he’s also rushed 14 times for 44 yards and two touchdowns, the second of which featured a highlight-reel stiff-arm.

Milton’s first touchdown of the second half was one to remember. In fact, it was his first completion of the entire half, but it was good for 40 yards and a Tennessee touchdown.

On 2nd-and-8 from the Bowling Green 40-yard line, Milton stepped out of the pocket and let a pass fly high and deep to the end zone, placed perfectly into the hands of Tennessee wide receiver Cedric Tillman. The reception put Tillman at 48 yards for the night on two receptions.

Milton, a Michigan transfer, struggled in his time with the Wolverines. In three years at Michigan, he completed a cumulative 86 of 152 pass attempts for 1,194 yards, five touchdowns and six interceptions. He was benched last season and entered the transfer portal, before enrolling in Tennessee in June — and so far, he seems to have put those struggles behind him.

“I mentioned at the beginning of training camp that we thought we’d have a starting quarterback by game week,” head coach Josh Heupel said Monday. “Joe Milton will be our starting quarterback. I talked to those guys earlier about that. [I’m] not naming a backup [quarterback].”

Milton was one of three primary competitors for the starting quarterback job. Virginia Tech transfer Hendon Hooker, a redshirt senior who started threw for nearly 3,000 yards and rushed for over 1,000 more with the Hokies, and returning sophomore Harrison Bailey were both vying for the job.

“I don’t think there’s just one thing,” Heupel said, when asked what separated Milton from Hooker and Bailey. “At the end of the day, I felt like Joe — just his grasp over our offense in a short amount of time, the growth over the middle portion of training camp, his acceleration in what we’re doing, some physical attributes, decision-making led us to put the ball in his hands here [for] this first ballgame.”