Tennessee quarterback Joe Milton has lofty goals. Let’s see if he can reach them. They will be difficult to obtain.
I’ve found Milton’s latest comparisons to one of the all-time great quarterbacks, former Auburn quarterback Cam Newton, interesting for a couple of reasons. While we’ve made the comparison to former Florida quarterback Anthony Richardson apt because the two players are physical freaks, a potential likelihood to Newton would be better for the Vols.
The comparisons to Richardson are all about potential. That may play well in the NFL, but it won’t do much for the Vols this season. Richardson was selected with the fourth overall pick in the NFL Draft in April. He’s gone on to be a starter for the Indianapolis Colts, although he’s currently sidelined with a concussion. At Florida, Richardson was more inconsistent than productive.
Richardson led the Gators to a 6-6 record last season before bolting to the NFL. He was 11th in the SEC in 2022 with a 130.96 passer rating. If the Vols fall to 6-6 and Milton, who has a passer rating of 142.2, is picked fourth or higher in the NFL Draft, he’s not going to have a street named after him in Knoxville. In fact, he’ll be remembered like Florida remembers Richardson, as a powerful cyclone that rolled through town and didn’t ever create havoc in college. That’s not what Milton wants to be remembered as. That’s not how Tennessee fans want to remember Milton. For the record, Newton’s quarterback rating of 182 in 2010 led the SEC.
Milton and Newton have a couple of things in common, but one very big difference. We’ll get to that in a second. First, the two are about the same size in college, 6-foot-5 and 245 pounds. Second, both had also traveled difficult paths to become SEC starters. Newton went from Florida to Blinn (Texas) Community College to Auburn. Milton transferred from Michigan. Oddly enough, former Tennessee coach Lane Kiffin chose not to recruit Newton, but that’s a story for another day.
Newton and Milton look almost identical running the football – in a straight line. Newton had more wiggle when he ran the ball and could make players miss. Milton may actually be able to do that if he trucks some defenders to make them hesitant in the future. We’ll see if his running, which included an 81-yard touchdown run on the first play of the UTSA game, changes how defenders approach him. Still, there’s a more significant difference between the two players.
Newton won the Heisman Trophy in 2010 and led the Tigers to a national championship. He was indeed a special player. What is separates Newton and Milton? Simple. Newton threw the ball with more touch. It isn’t any surprise to any fan who dons orange on Saturdays that Milton doesn’t have that touch to take heat off of his highly publicized fast ball. Can Milton develop that during the season when he hasn’t been able to do so since signing with Michigan in 2018? Probably not. It’s not impossible for that to occur, but it seems a bit farfetched to think that Milton is suddenly going to become a touch passer. That, however, may not matter.
Milton can still take advantage of his running ability. He can still scare defenses enough with his ground game to keep defenses honest against the run, which isn’t the case now. Defenses are dropping back and daring Milton’s Vols to win games with the running game, which has been subpar without center Cooper Mays in action, and/or Milton’s consistent accuracy underneath, which has been shaky for streaks of passes in every game this season.
Milton may be somewhat like Newton. However, unless Milton magically develops the ability to throw at different velocities and improves his accuracy, he’s not even close to being in that category. Until then, he’s not even like Richardson.
