Four Tennessee players named Preseason All-SEC
Four Tennessee football players were voted preseason All-SEC by league media, the conference announced on Friday afternoon. Wide receiver Bru McCoy was voted Second Team All-SEC and quarterback Joe Milton III made the Third Team, along with offensive linemen Javontez Spraggins and Cooper Mays.
The Vols received 14 first-place votes in the SEC East, finishing behind Georgia and its 265 votes. Tennessee at No. 2 came in ahead of South Carolina, Kentucky, Florida and Missouri. South Carolina received three first-place votes, Kentucky received one and Vanderbilt, picked the finish last in the division, received eight first-place votes.
Georgia was picked to win the SEC ahead of Alabama, LSU and Tennessee.
Joe Milton III set to take over as Tennessee’s starting QB in 2023
Milton takes over for redshirt senior quarterback Hendon Hooker after Hooker helped lead the Vols to an 11-2 season in 2022. Tennessee started 8-0 and climbed all the way to No. 1 in the first College Football Playoff Top 25 of the season in November behind Hooker, who at the time was a Heisman Trophy frontrunner.
Hooker tore his ACL in the loss at South Carolina on November 19 and Milton took over, leading Tennessee to a 56-0 win at Vanderbilt in the regular-season finale in Nashville on November 26 and then a 31-14 win over Clemson in the Capital One Orange Bowl at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami on December 30.
It was Tennessee’s first New Year’s Six Bowl win in the College Football Playoff era and the program’s first 11-win season since 2001.
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Milton completed 19 of 28 passes for 251 yards and three touchdowns to win the Orange Bowl MVP. He passed for 971 yards and 10 touchdowns, with no interceptions, in nine games last season.
Three Vols named third-team preseason All-SEC
Spraggins, the 6-foot-3, 325-pound senior out of East St. Louis, Ill., has started 26 of his 33 career games, including all 13 games last season at right guard. He’s been named to the SEC Academic Honor Roll three times.
Mays, the 6-foot-3, 305-pound senior from Knoxville, is preparing for his third straight season as Tennessee’s starting center. He’s started 23 times in 31 career games, has twice made the SEC Academic Honor Roll and was named All-SEC Third Team in the preseason a year ago.
