Joey Halzle weighs the balance of Joe Milton running the ball

The Tennessee Volunteers offensive coordinator, Joey Halzle, has one of the better two-way quarterbacks in the SEC in Joe Milton, leading the Volunteers’ offense. But sometimes, it can be difficult to balance when to run versus when to pass. And as Tennessee prepares to host Texas A&M, Halzle reveals how he is managing Milton’s ability to tuck and run, along with how often he directs his quarterback not to do that. 

“Well, that’s the thing, when a guy has the ability to do that, you can’t tell him not to. It’s just gotta be from us, on the staff side; how much are you truly going to design for him,” said Halzle. “And you just gotta use the balance of when something presents itself; we have to go play and take advantage of it. But the way he plays, he’s going to use his legs on his own, too. And that’s what he does at a really high level. You saw against UTSA; that wasn’t a design quarterback run. That was him making a read and going and getting it.  

“So you can’t say, ‘Hey man, I need you not to pull it. Because then, if it presents itself, he’s gonna pull it. It’s just us on the front end of how much do we want to run this guy.” 

This season, Milton has done well both passing and rushing as Tennessee’s starting quarterback. On the year, he has completed 101 of his 160 pass attempts for 1164 yards with nine touchdowns to just three interceptions. He’s also carried the ball 24 times for 139 yards and four touchdowns. As mentioned by Halzle above, his best run on the season, an 81-yard touchdown scamper against UTSA, came as an improv to scramble. 

Halzle is not trying to limit what Milton can do on the field. Instead, he is ensuring that he and his coaching staff are doing all they can to call the right place to maximize his skill set, which will keep the Tennessee offense running smoothly. And in doing so, that will make sure the Volunteers remain in the hunt for the SEC East title. 

Halzle doesn’t believe Nico Iamaleava would operate Tennessee offense better than Milton

Saturday wasn’t Joe Milton‘s finest moment. Nonetheless, Tennessee offensive coordinator Joey Halzle isn’t ready to doubt the QB yet. He certainly isn’t willing to replace him.

On Tuesday, Halzle bluntly answered whether Tennesee would find more success with backup QB Nico Iamaleava taking over the starting spot.

“No,” Halzle said. “It’s operation. Joe is operating at a really high level. No.”