Milton’s quest for 2018 Heisman begins at UConn
UCF quarterback coming off 13-0 undefeated season
McKenzie Milton was three weeks removed from his 11th birthday on that early November day in 2008 when West Virginia’s Pat White stepped onto Rentschler Field ready to lead his Mountaineers to a convincing victory.
White was coming off a spectacular junior season, one that resulted in the versatile quarterback finishing sixth in the 2007 Heisman Trophy balloting. Since that time no player who had finished in the top 10 in voting for the Heisman the previous year has stepped foot on the home field for the UConn football program.
That will change on Thursday night when UCF plays at UConn (7 p.m., ESPNU). Milton, a junior quarterback for visiting UCF, looks to build on a brilliant season which culminated in an undefeated season, a conference title and the No. 8 spot in the voting for the 2017 Heisman Trophy.
“I am happy we play UConn early so we don’t have to catch the cold hopefully,” Milton said with a laugh. “I think it is exciting to get one conference game under our belt, hopefully it will be a win for us. It will be interesting but we are really excited, we are looking forward to Aug. 30.
“UConn had a lot of talent last year, they had a lot of good players. Junior Joseph was one of the best linebackers I played, he was a heck of a player, another guy was No. 15 (Luke Carrezola) a defensive lineman and he was a very good
lineman as well. They always have some big guys, when they walk out of the tunnel you can see some big bodies and go, ‘OK it is going to be a tough game.’ We know they are going to be ready.”
Milton has certainly been ready to face UConn in the past as two of his eight 300-yard passing games have come against the Huskies. In the last 40 seasons, Milton joins Pittsburgh’s Tino Sunseri and Hofstra’s Giovanni Carmazzi as the only quarterbacks with more than one 300-yard passing game against the Huskies. If Milton becomes the first with three 300-yard games, he would have thrown for more passing yards against UConn than any other player since the Huskies became a Football Bowl Subdivision program. Currently that mark of 886 yards is held by Temple’s P.J. Walker although Carmazzi did throw for 1,072 yards in the late 1990s before the Huskies made the move to the FBS level.
“He’s a great player. We have a lot of respect for him so we are going to try to come in and try to stop them,” said UConn sophomore safety Tyler Coyle, who had a game-high 12 tackles with nine solo stops and a fumble recovery in UCF’s 49-24 win last season.
Marshe’ Terry added seven tackles, Darrian Beavers had one of the Huskies’ sacks of Milton while Kevin Murphy and Philippe Okounam each had one assisted tackle, but only eight of the 22 defensive players to get into the game against UCF a season ago are still on the UConn squad.
“I feel like we have a lot of players that we seize a moment like this,” Coyle said. “This could change our whole season, this could get the program starting in the right direction. We have to stay a closed fist, we are young and somewhat inexperienced, that shouldn’t affect us, we have to go out there, study our game plan and do what we have to do.”
Milton was not his team’s quarterback in his early days of playing football as Tua Tagovailoa filled that role with great distinction on a pop warner team in their native Hawaii. Yes, that’s the same player who ended his true freshman season at Alabama by coming off the bench to throw for three touchdowns in the 2018 College Football Playoff National Championship game win over Georgia.
“Tua was my quarterback in sixth grade, I was the running back,” Milton said. “He definitely came a long way. We’d go to camps together, played each other throughout high school, played his little brother in high school. Where he is at now, where I am at now, it is unbelievable.
“We crack jokes about it all the time. I tell him that what he did in the last game of the season for the national championship was unheard of, a true freshman coming in during the second half and the way he diced up Georgia was unbelievable. The plays he was making, he had some moxie and he has always played like that even in high school. He is an unbelievable player and an even better person; what you see is what you get with Tua.”
Milton is one of two returning FBS quarterbacks who passed for more than 4,000 yards last season, and the only FBS quarterback with a higher passing rating than Milton in 2017 was Baker Mayfield, who is currently pushing hard to open the 2018 season as the starting quarterback for the NFL’s Cleveland Browns.
Milton threw for nine touchdowns and ran for two more as UCF outlasted rival South Florida 49-42 in the regular-season finale, and then outscored Memphis 62-55 in the American Athletic Conference title game.
“It is something you dream about,” Milton said. “Those are probably the two best football games I’ve been a part of and it was against two great teams, two teams that could beat us if one play went one way or the other. It might have been divine intervention, I am not sure, you need some of that.”
UCF is without its top receiver from a season ago, as Tre’Quan Smith is currently lighting it up in preseason games with the New Orleans Saints and there are some holes to fill on the offensive line. There is also a change at the top as head coach Scott Frost left to take over at Nebraska. Former Oklahoma, Utah State and Missouri offensive coordinator Josh Heupel is now calling the shots in Orlando. Even with the changes, Milton is looking to build on a 13-0 season.
“I am confident with the guys around me to make plays so I don’t necessarily feel pressure,” Milton said. “Pressure is what you feel when you don’t put in enough work.”
Milton is also facing the extra scrutiny that comes with being a Heisman Trophy candidate.
“I don’t mind,” Milton said. “It means a lot to have a school that believes in me and supports me in that way but at the same time, it does kind of bother me in a way because I want the focus to be on the team and what we are trying to accomplish more than me trying to win a Heisman Trophy.”
UCF opened the last two seasons playing at home against South Carolina State and FIU. This year the Knights hit the road for its conference opener.
“We haven’t had that since I have been at UCF so it has kind of been different,” UCF senior linebacker Pat Jasinski said. “It is new and it just gives us more motivation through camp, we have a big, important game. Every game is (important) from week to week but to have a conference game to go against especially on the road, it is exciting.”