Desmond Howard picks Tennessee as Georgia's biggest challenger in the SEC

ESPN analyst Desmond Howard is down on the SEC. Howard is a believer in Georgia, but outside of the Bulldogs, he sees question marks everywhere.

Howard appeared on First Take on Friday and said that Tennessee can possibly challenge Georgia this season. However, other than the Vols, and potentially Alabama, he isn’t a believer in the conference.

“I think the only other team that can probably compete is maybe Tennessee,” Howard said. “We’re looking at what Josh Heupel is doing with the Volunteers. They’ve got this quarterback — Joe Milton.”

Howard is taking a wait-and-see approach with Milton. He acknowledges that the Michigan transfer has a big arm, but as he pointed out, it takes more than a big arm to win football games.

“Everyone’s talking about Milton’s arm and how strong he is. But this ain’t baseball,” Howard said. “We need accuracy. We need touch. We need everything else except just a guy who can throw a ball 100 yards. So really curious to see how Joe Milton operates in this Tennessee offense, coming off the heels of what Henson Hooker was able to do a year ago.”

Hooker had an incredible season in 2022, before it was cut short due to injury. He earned SEC Offensive Player of the Year honors and finished fifth in Heisman voting. Milton would love to pick up where Hooker left off, but doing so won’t be easy.

To Milton’s credit, he did impress in the Orange Bowl to end last season, leading the Vols to a win over Clemson. Still, Howard wants to see more.

Howard, who picked Alabama to make the College Football Playoff last week, still has question marks about the Crimson Tide quarterback situation. He does expect Alabama to be good, and he thinks Tennessee should be, too. But that’s about it as far as elite teams he sees in the SEC.

“I would probably say maybe Tennessee, but outside of that, this isn’t as strong a conference, the SEC, as people usually think that they are,” Howard said.

Desmond Howard details ‘major, major concern’ with Alabama quarterback situation

As mentioned, Howard is high on Alabama, but he doesn’t trust the quarterback situation.

The former Heisman Trophy winner turned ESPN analyst joined First Take on Friday, prior to Week 1 of the college football season. News of who Alabama will start at quarterback finally broke Friday, but it didn’t come out until a day before the Crimson Tide open their season.

“I’m really concerned,” Howard explained. “When you see a guy like Nick Saban just break tradition. … Not naming a starter. There is major, major concern at that position. But then, how can you blame him?

“Just think, he’s coming off a season where he had one of the best quarterbacks in the history of the program, Bryce Young, who won the Heisman. So the standard of quarterback play was through the roof, because he was phenomenal. And now you’re dealing with Jalen Milroe, who is an athletic guy, and Tyler Buchner, who comes over from Notre Dame, but that same level of play just isn’t there. So it makes it hard for Nick Saban’s offensive staff, to really dial it back a little bit now and try to figure out who is going to be their starter for the 2023 season.”