What Joe Milton said after leading No. 21 Tennessee to a road win at Kentucky

Joe Milton completed 18 of 21 passes for 228 yards and a touchdown and ran for 26 yards — including an11-yard run on third-and-7 with 1:49 left in the fourth quarter — to lead No. 21 Tennessee to a 33-27 win at Kentucky Saturday night.

“(He) made big-time throws inside of the pocket,” Tennessee coach Josh Heupel said after the game, “made them as he escaped and moved. When they dropped eight and everything was covered out, it was pressure at times. Great to see a scramble and, make the throw down football field, completions that were big.”

Here’s everything Milton said during his postgame press conference following the win:

Tennessee bouncing back from the loss at Alabama with a road win at Kentucky 

“This is something we preach every day in practice, no matter if we have a good game or a bad game, just want to go out there every day and wanna work, wanna get better at what we do. I feel like that was the main goal. Just go out there and just do our job at a high level. That’s something that we preached about last week and we didn’t come down to that. So this week was the main focus is do our job at a high level.”

Seeing kicker Charles Campbell have that kind of game for Tennessee

“It was good. Finally having him on our team, just seeing him in the Big 10 when I was at Michigan, he was at Indiana. And seeing him make those field goals when we played against him was a little bit sad. So just seeing him on our side of the ball now is great. And I’m proud of them and the special teams.”

Tennessee finishing the game with a four-minute drive in the fourth quarter 

“It was great. It was an opportunity for us to go out there and seal the deal. That’s what we did. Shout out to those other 10 guys that was out there with me and the other guys that was out there on the sideline that was also locked in. Just seal the deal. That’s all that matters.”

Tennessee running back Dylan Sampson getting tough yards

“I mean, he do that every day. That’s Dylan. Just a small guy that’s hard to bring down. Dylan works on everything that you can possibly see out there on the field. Like he work on those moments. It don’t matter what he is doing, he’s trying to work on something new. It’s Dylan, man. He’s smart, he works hard and also he’s just a team player, too. So whatever needs to be done, Dylan is willing to do it.”

The long touchdown pass to redshirt freshman wide receiver Chas Nimrod

“It gives (the young receivers) a lot of more confidence. Those guys come in with confidence every day, but giving them the opportunity to touch the ball more, that gives them more confidence upon themselves. But also just for the offense too. Just get us going some more.”

Making plays on the run and throwing on the move outside the pocket

“Just getting the ball to my open guys. Making something happen. The play is not there, either go get it or make something happen with the ball. But other than that, just giving my guys opportunity to make a play.”

The identity of this Tennessee team at this point in the season 

“The offense is the offense. We’re gonna spread the ball, we’re going to run the ball, we’re gonna throw the ball, we’re gonna throw screens, whatever it is. The offense is the offense. Nothing changes from year to year. It’s just the people. It’s a different team. We don’t got certain guys no more. And then we got new guys, too, as well. So they have to learn offense and be able to adjust in the game and understand our tempo in the game. So everything is a little bit different. It wasn’t nothing that we can do different, we just gotta do our job at a high level.”

His run on third down and slide near the sideline to help Tennessee run out the clock

“Just seal the deal. That’s how that matters. I don’t think that was the biggest moment in my career. Just seal the deal. That’s all that matters.”

What he learned about this Tennessee team in that kind of win

“Once you get an opportunity to seal the deal or put somebody away, just put them away early. So they won’t have a chance to come back. Kentucky, they’re great. They have a great team. They have a great defense, great offense, great special teams, but those guys, they wasn’t gonna quit. So we knew that it was gonna be a 60-minute fight and shout out to them for coming out there, swinging every play. Just being able to execute every play, don’t matter what, no matter who’s in front of you.”