Josh Heupel praises Joe Milton's decision making, accuracy during interception-free camp

Josh Heupel didn’t have any critiques of Joe Milton III after Tennessee’s scrimmage Wednesday morning at Neyland Stadium, the team’s second of fall camp. The redshirt senior quarterback continued down the same path he’s been on the last two weeks.

“Really decisive,” Heupel said during his press conference after the scrimmage, when asked about Milton’s accuracy during the preseason. “Been a really good decision-maker. I don’t know if he’s (thrown) a pick all training camp. 

“(He has) been in control of protections for the most part. And we’ve continued to push their hand on that side of it. That’s Joe, but that’s the guys behind him right now too. And I think they’ve continued to grow in that way.”

Milton didn’t throw any interceptions in his nine appearances last season while backing up Hendon Hooker. He completed 53 of 82 passes for 971 yards, 10 touchdowns and no picks.

He started in Tennessee’s 56-0 win in the regular-season finale at Vanderbilt a week after Hooker’s season-ending ACL tear, throwing for 147 yards and a touchdown while the Vols rushed for 362 yards and six touchdowns as a team.

He completed 19 of 28 passes for the 251 yards and three touchdowns in the Orange Bowl, connecting with Squirrel White, Bru McCoy and Ramel Keyton on the touchdowns.

Joe Milton at Tennessee: 1,346 pass yards, 12 TDs, 0 INTs

Milton in 17 games at Tennessee over the last two seasons has passed for 1,346 yards, with 12 touchdowns and no interceptions while completing 59.0 percent of his passes. He was picked off six times in 13 games over three seasons at Michigan, with his last interception coming during the 2020 season.

At SEC Media Days in Nashville back in July, Milton was asked if he knew how many interceptions he had thrown during his time at Tennessee.

“Zero,” Milton said.

He was then asked if that was something to be proud of.

“I mean, any quarterback should be proud of that,” he said. “Personally, I feel like you take care of the ball and make things happen that way. I feel like your offense can be successful that way.”

But Milton didn’t want to take credit for it. When asked what his lack of interceptions at Tennessee says about his decision making, he deflected.

“That just say something about my coaches,” Milton said. “They put me in the right situation at the right time.”

‘He’s a completely different player … his attention to detail is elite’

Offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Joey Halzle couldn’t say enough good things about Milton at the start of training camp. 

“He’s a completely different guy … not just player, but his attention to detail is elite,” Halzle said. “He came back after that Clemson game and he was hungry to keep learning and keep pushing forward. He didn’t rest on his laurels like, all right, cool, I figured it out. He pushed. 

“I think he saw the success that he had and he knows what his talent can do and now his mentality is matching that as far as how much he wants to learn, how much he’s just consuming the game at all times. It’s fun to be a part of right now. It’s a special mindset that that kid has.”

It’s a mindset that Milton said Halzle emphasizes in the meeting room. 

“We preach every day in the quarterback room,” Milton said. “Coach Halzle preaches it a lot. Just the decision making, you know, have a reason for what you’re doing. So, whatever it takes in our offense, if you have plays to the right or plays to the left, have a reason for going either way you choose. 

“But go through your read, take care of it how you would take care of it if you had a family, right? So just approach it the same way and attack that play, go hard 100 percent the time because if you wrong, it’ll be 100 percent wrong. But attack it at the same speed you would if you’re right.”