Olympia High’s Milton brushes off loss to UF
QB looks ahead to bigger things with Tennessee
GAINESVILLE — Even after a game in which his Tennessee Volunteers were roughed up by the Florida Gators 29-16, senior quarterback Joe Milton still managed a smile afterward when asked what being back in the state means to him.
“It meant a lot,” said Milton, who grew up in South Florida and played his high school football at Olympia in Orlando.
“I had a lot of family here, but most importantly just being able to go out here and execute with my brothers. I know we fell short, but you just got to go out there and execute, no matter what.”
Milton will have another chance to right the Vols this weekend at home versus UTSA before returning to Southeastern Conference play Sept. 30 vagainst South Carolina.
Milton’s maturity has grown exponentially as a collegian. He makes better decisions, has become more accurate with the football, and he’s as poised as ever when standing in the pocket.
He signed with Michigan out of Olympia, playing there for two seasons before transferring to Tennessee. Vols coach Josh Heupel knew of Milton from his days at UCF. Heupel was hired by former UCF athletic director Danny White (now at Tennessee) in 2017, the same year Milton was a senior at Olympia.
Heupel has been pleased with what Milton has accomplished at Tennessee, even though the Vols lost in Gainesville.
“He did some good things down the stretch,” Heupel said. “Early in the football game, we as
an entire unit weren’t playing the way that we needed to move the football consistently.
“Joe’s done some really good things. ... I was proud of the way they competed in the second half … still not clean enough and still not as efficient as we need to be … but they came out and competed.”
Milton showed poise in speaking with the media after the loss, talking about the team needing to move forward.
“These games right here lead you to the most important things in life,” he said. “You look at the game and you think, ‘Awe man, we lost to Florida,’ but you go back in the locker room Sunday and watch the game and see all the mistakes you made as a team and personally … you want to just fix those and go execute next week.
“We’ll find out what kind of team we are. … You go back out Monday and execute and get ready for the following week. Can’t go back and change anything that happened in this game.”
Milton threw his first interception as a Volunteer on Saturday night, an overthrown ball that sailed into the hands of Gators defensive back Devin Moore. Milton was near flawless in his first return to Florida in December, a 31-14 rout of Clemson at the Orange Bowl in Miami. Milton completed 19 of 28 passes for 251 yards and three touchdowns.
He took full responsibility after throwing his first pick.
“You can’t change what happened; you only can learn from it,” Milton said. “It’s totally on me. I understand. … It’s part of the game.”
He’s hoping he can get back to more of what he accomplished in previous Tennessee games. NFL scouts, who can’t help but take notice of a specimen who stands 6-foot-5, 235 pounds and can throw a football 80 yards on the hop, will keep tabs on his progress.
Milton is not concerned about the NFL right now, but that will come soon enough in April.