Invitation Accepted: Joe Milton to officially play in Reese’s Senior Bowl
After receiving a formal invitation to play in the coveted Reese’s Senior Bowl back in late November, Tennessee quarterback Joe Milton has officially accepted the offer and will be on display in Mobile, Ala. on the week of February 3.
The former Michigan Wolverine transferred to Tennessee prior to the start of the 2021 campaign. He started the first two games that year before injury sidelined him. Hendon Hooker, who started in his place, took off and Milton was regulated to the bench for the rest of the season and for 2022.
When injury struck Hooker in Week 12 of the 2022 season at South Carolina, Milton stepped in and started the final game of the regular season against Vanderbilt and for the Vols against Clemson in the Orange Bowl, leading the Vols to a pair of wins with a combined 87-14 score.
OFFICIAL! QB Joe Milton III @Qbjayy7 from @Vol_Football has accepted his invitation to the 2024 Reese's Senior Bowl! #GBO #VFL #TheDraftStartsInMOBILE™️@JimNagy_SB @PaniniAmerica #RatedRookie pic.twitter.com/v3oynTgtim
— Reese's Senior Bowl (@seniorbowl) December 11, 2023
Milton quarterbacked Tennessee to an 8-4 regular season in 2023 and boasts an overall record of 11-5 as the starting quarterback for the Vols throughout his career. The signal-caller combined for 27 total touchdowns this year with only five interceptions – throwing for 2,813 yards and completing 65 percent of his passes.
He was at his best in the regular season finale against Vanderbilt, which was a Senior Day win, throwing for 383 yards, four touchdowns and two rushing scores. He also found the endzone a combined four times against Virginia in the 2023 season-opener and was later named the Southeastern Conference Offensive Player of the Week for his efforts.
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“My journey has been shaky,” Milton said following the Vanderbilt win when asked to sum up his career. “Three years at Michigan. First two years only playing eight games. Then my junior year COVID happened in 2020. Get a start and you get to play three games and in your second game of the season, you get hurt to an injury. You just look back at those things and I just never gave myself the fruits of the labor. This is the longest season I have ever been in. Making it through, being able to go game from game and flushing the last one. That is pretty much all you ask for. I didn’t do it alone. I had a whole bunch of guys behind me. They were telling me all the right things. They kept me up. They made sure I was smiling because if I wasn’t smiling, nobody else was smiling. They made sure I was smiling.”
Milton joins Hooker as a the second quarterback under Josh Heupel at Tennessee to be invited to the Reese’s Senior Bowl. Hooker was a non-participant last year due to his ACL injury but was still invited and went to meet with teams.
The Reese’s Senior Bowl is widely regarded as the preeminent college football all-star game and the first stage in the NFL Draft process. The longest continual-running all-star game has taken place in Mobile, Alabama the past 74 years. More than 900 NFL personnel, including key decision-makers from all 32 teams, and over 1100 media members from around the country were credentialed this year. This past April, the game produced 100 total picks for the third straight year, representing 40 percent of the entire NFL draft, including 40 selected on the first two days.
