WATCH: Joe Milton embarrasses Bowling Green defender for Tennessee touchdown

Tennessee quarterback Joe Milton is starting off his career with the Volunteers in exciting fashion.

The Volunteers on Thursday opened up their season against Bowling Green, and Milton so far has shown flashes of athleticism and his strong arm. At the time of publishing, Milton has completed 10 of 15 passing attempts for 100 yards. Though he hasn’t thrown for a touchdown, he’s run for two — and his second was highlight worthy.

Joe Milton with the 1-yard TD for Tennessee. pic.twitter.com/muuC5joJwQ

— Trey Wallace (@TreyWallace_) September 3, 2021

Early in the second quarter, Milton and the Volunteers were on the goal line, and their brand-new signal caller took an option a few yards to the house. On the way there, however, he stiff-armed a Bowling Green defender to the ground emphatically, prompting Milton to show off a Super Man celebration.

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 of 2021 — 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.”