Tennessee quarterback Joe Milton III can add another football game to his next schedule.
A little more than a month after the Vols closed the 2023 season near his hometown with a Cheez-It Citrus Bowl game against Iowa on Jan. 1 in Orlando, Milton will play in the Reese’s Senior Bowl, he said. -it was announced Sunday evening. informed that he had officially accepted his invitation to the college postseason all-star game.
This will be an important showcase for him in Mobile in February as he works toward the 2024 NFL Draft. This is the second straight year a Tennessee quarterback has appeared in the Senior Bowl.
Hendon Hooker received an invitation a year ago, but was unable to play in the game due to the knee injury he suffered against South Carolina.
The Senior Bowl made an exception by allowing Hooker to be in Mobile and watch practices, attend meetings, and meet with NFL personnel in the week leading up to the game, and he was drafted by the Lions in the third round.
The 2024 Reese’s Senior Bowl is scheduled for Feb. 3, 2024, at Hancock Whitney Stadium on the South Alabama campus in Mobile, and the NFL Network will televise the game, which will take place at 1 p.m. kick off.
Milton’s college career, a winding journey from Michigan to Tennessee with ups and downs, is nearing its end, and his last game for the Vols will be the Citrus Bowl.
Camping World Stadium is about 10 miles from Olympia High School, where Milton later played. moving from Pahokee to Orlando for his freshman year.
The quarterback has yet to reveal whether he will play in the game or sit out to ensure he is ready for the pre-draft process, which now includes a key opportunity with the Senior Bowl.
After three seasons at Michigan, Milton transferred to Tennessee in 2021 and initially won the starting job entering his freshman season with the Vols.
However, his injury in the top half of the second game opened the door for Hooker to come in, and he never looked back, leading Tennessee to new heights on offense and an 11-win season in 2022. Milton was dropped as Hooker’s backup and the two became roommates and good friends.
Milton started the final two games of the 2022 season following Hooker’s injury and, after earning Orange Bowl MVP honors, took over for good this season, leading the Vols to an 8-4 record during the guided regular season.
Milton completed 64.7 percent of his passes (229 of 354) for a total of 2,813 yards with 20 touchdowns and just five interceptions in 12 games, and added 299 rushing yards and seven touchdown runs.
While Tennessee’s offense took a step back from its record-breaking standards in 2021 and 2022, Milton finished seventh in the SEC in passing (234.4 yards per game) and total offense (259.3 yards per game ) and eighth in passer rating (147.27) and yards per attempt (7.9).
Milton has thrown multiple touchdown passes in seven of Tennessee’s 12 games this season, and his streak of 14 consecutive games with at least one touchdown pass is the third longest in program history.
There were five games in which he passed and rushed for scores, including the regular-season finale against Vanderbilt last week, when he totaled six touchdowns (four passing, two rushing) while passing for a team-best 383 yards. his career. Milton is 11-5 as Tennessee’s starting quarterback.
The 6-foot-1, 235-pounder’s combination of size, athleticism and arm talent make him an intriguing prospect for the NFL, especially in the footsteps of former Florida quarterback Anthony Richardson, a similar player who was taken with the No. 4 pick absolutely choose a year ago.
Milton is the third quarterback named to the Senior Bowl, joining Tulane’s Michael Pratt and South Carolina’s Spencer Rattler. Georgia Southern coach:
Tennessee ‘the point of reference’ for defense and physicality When Georgia Southern coach Charlie Henry was an assistant to Nate Oats at Alabama the past four years, he said the Tide considered Tennessee “the gold standard” for defense and physicality. Tuesday’s first half in Knoxville showed him that’s still the case.
This is Charlie Henry’s first season as a college head coach, but Tuesday was hardly Henry’s first visit to the Food City Center, the riverfront home where Tennessee basketball has long been played and is still known to most as Thompson Boling Arena.
