SBNATION article on Milton's first Tennessee game

I watched parts of that game and even his hot start was mostly little checkdowns and crossing routes to guys who were wide open.  Heck, his longest completion by yardage was a throw out to the sidelines 10 yards downfield that the receiver turned up after Milton had, I kid you not, 5 seconds to survey the field.  Once BGSU stopped rushing more than 3 and just hung back Milton and the UT passing offense looked lost.  It's the first game of the year in a new system so there's still time but he still showed the same flaws we all saw last year.  

The one thing I'll say in his favor is maybe just maybe he needs more pt and it'll click and get in some rhythm. He didn't have a ton of time for us and them now in game. But he went to Tennessee which I despise so I hope he has a mediocre career there and success after.

I watched the Tennessee possessions this morning. Milton looked like a world-beater on the first (scripted) series where Tennessee went up tempo against a clearly overmatched BG defense. 2nd possession was pretty good but missed a long post route badly (at least 10 yards over the receivers) head. He showed some nice touch on a couple short passes early but fell into the arm rocket habits of old and his receivers couldn’t hang on. After that Tennessee went primarily run for the rest of the game, with a couple deep balls that Milton overthrew his receivers badly. His balls have no arc, so it’s gotta be on the money and he clearly has not corrected that part of his game. He had a few good runs, had decent protection where he just stands flat footed in the pocket staring downfield, and his throws to open receivers were consistently late. A couple times he pointed like Babe Ruth into the stands before chucking it, which was weird, and I think both were incompletions. Gave up a bad fumble on a sack that he should have held onto; he saw the hit coming, leaned away and still fumbled. He had a late bomb for a TD in the end zone that should have been picked, DB had position and just made a bad play. Do not miss. 

I'm glad he had his pre-season moment in the sun. My worry is that it may get so ugly for Joe Milton that we'll regret even our hard-earned schadenfreude now, spend most of the season looking the other way and mourning for the guy. It'll just seem mean-spirited to say 'I told you so.'

Milton reminds me of the QB in Gridiron gang who said he had it, knew all the stuff, and as it turns out, just played a lot of madden. I'm not suggesting milton doesnt work at it - just that he must CLEARLY be doing something to earn 2 starting QB jobs at big schools, particularly at Tennessee where everyone wants to see Bailey - we know he physically looks the part, and he probably can command the huddle in practice, but as someone said above. He looks like he has cement shoes and i think its because he's trying to run through reads etc and he has no fluidity in his movement/game when his brain turns on. As soon as the game lights come on... its too fast for him.

Even on that first 4 yard QB run for a TD he got knocked sideways... the guy should be punishing and instead seems like he absorbs the blow. His throwing woes are well documented. I think he'll be benched within a couple weeks.

As said above - if he left disgruntled and hurt Michigan, screw off. Either way, he better get that degree!

Milton can make throws against garbage teams when everything goes right. We have always known this. UT fans will be very disappointed soon.

Lets not make Milton the bad guy for idiots on TV taking digs at Michigan or puffing him up. The sports world loves nothing more than to prop someone up and then watch them epically fail (which most think is coming). That's not on Milton - thats on these guys saying... "Tennessee is rolling - 14-6"... and "He sure looks different back there than that other school". 

Gotta find a villian (Michigan), a hero (Milton), and then if Cade looks great and milton flops --- oooh... Milton is a disaster and Cade is the hero.  

Its basically the Gus Johnson school of analysis. Everything in extremes, even though most things are absolutely not.

By the end of Saturday there will be 1000 other story lines and the attention to Milton/Tenn will be 0 by the national media and near zero here.

If you don’t suit up for Michigan, then I don’t give a fck about you and hope you fail. Especially when said guy transferred at the first sign of adversity and talked shit on his way out. Milton, McCaffrey, etc yea I ain’t rooting for their success as they don’t help Michigan so idc... 

Having a cannon is not all that significant if you can't diagonose coverages. Throwing lazers on mesh concepts is going to result in a lot of tipped passes off your receivers hands and into the hands of the defense.  

There was no question that the offense improved immediately in the Rutgers game when Cade McNamara took over.  I don’t understand those who regret Milton transferring out. I wish him well, but he’d be third string with our current roster, so transferring was understandable.  

Milton seemed to do best in the hurry up short to mid passing game that they ran in the first quarter. was accurate - then two drops and like last year that seemed to affect him. As others have pointed out he still has to work on the long ball - should get better with more experience and familiarity with his new receivers - if they stay with him.

Looked good and decisive on planned runs but very slow (even slower than last year) on QB scrambles and in the pocket generally. Looked like he really didn't want to make a mistake so ate the ball a few times instead of trying to make something happen. Keep in mind this is a new offensive system and coach for Tennessee and Milton wasn't there for Spring practice. Next week they play Pitt. 

In other former QB news

Dylan McCaffrey and Northern Colorado play Colorado tonight

Brandon Peters returned to practice so good news for him.

Milton was 11/23. 

His senior of HS he was 90/188.

At Michigan in 2020, he was 80/141.

Looks to me like he hasn't yet solved his accuracy issues.

Well, not that unexpected was it?

Kid started 5 games ever. Now he has  6 games under his belt.

New offense, new head coach, new school..On top of that, the kid was always a 'project' recruit. High ceiling, low floor

He wasn't great, but its where you end the season, not how you start it.

The game was basically a microcosm of Milton's 2020 season. He started hot and showed off his awesome arm strength. Then went through long periods of stagnation with the occasional good throw.

Also. Give Bowling Green a lot of credit. Down two top receivers and with an offensive line that couldn't allow for a run game, they extended some drives. They played well, thoroughly outmanned, and were a near all freshman team.

And not a good sign for Milton: the best QB on the field was Matt McDonald for BG. He was the worst QB in the country by far last year - 40-some% completions. 1 TD, 5+ picks. Of course he played with a bad shoulder and had surgery in the offseason. But regardless, bad look for that guy to be the better QB. Switch the QBs and it's a 70-0 game.

Sounds about right.  I'm still not sure (granted small sample sizes) what the coaches saw in Milton last year that would lead to them running McCaffrey out of town and putting Milton ahead of McNamara.  I'll be curious to see what McCaffrey is able to do elsewhere and what McNamara is able to do this year, but it seems pretty clear that what we saw last year and what we saw last night is simply what Milton is...a big, athletic guy with a strong arm who is not particularly accurate, doesn't have great pocket presence, and is not great at reading defenses and finding the open wide receiver, and thus is capable of making some plays at times, but will be inconsistent and struggle against defenses with a pulse.  I'm sure he can improve, but probably never enough to be what UM hoped he could be.  He simply doesn't have P5 level of accuracy and reads to be effective.

I had to roll my eyes when Bush was spouting off at halftime that this was "all Tennessee," and they were only up 14-6 to one of the worst teams in all of FBS. I just think that he probably hates Michigan, hates Harbaugh (ever since Carroll's "What's your deal" comment, Bush probably took that incident as an affront and insult to his beloved former head coach), and just revels in being able to throw shade Harbaugh's way when he gets the opportunity. But let's be honest, until Michigan ups its game on the field, it needs to expect more crap from the peanut gallery just like this. 

As for Milton, I wish the kid luck but at this point I think he just is who he is at QB. I think Harbaugh took a big gamble on recruiting him out of HS and whiffed big time by starting him. I get it, he's got all the physical tools, but if you can't even crack 50% accuracy in high school, that says something. Milton still has time to prove me wrong, but he hardly looked like a worldbeater against a lowly Bowling Green team. What is he going to look like when he takes the field against Florida? Or Georgia? Or freaking Alabama? Hell, what's he going to look like against Pitt?!?

I don't think he's a bad kid. Just wants to play football, and he wasn't going to get to do that at Michigan anymore. Or at least not expect to start, so he was entirely within his rights to go somewhere that would afford him the opportunity to start. I'm just saying that I don't think anything about who he is on the field has changed since last season. 

I don't expect him to be Tennessee's starter by the time the season ends. 

Bowling Green has the highest odds of any team in the MAC to win that conference, so they would seem to be projected to be the worst team.

I watched a decent amount of the game and Milton was what I (we?) thought he was. Despite an incredible amount of time to throw, he missed open receivers (to the extent you can tell that on TV), and seemed to only throw after guys were already open, which sometimes resulted in late throws. He also got sacked 3 times. I don't know how our QB play will be this year, but I'm not fretting that we made a mistake in letting Milton go.

The final score (not in the article) was 38-6 largely, largely from a rushing attack.

Real question is...who is Milton's biggest fan who lost 220K when TN failed to cover the spread?

https://sports.yahoo.com/college-football-betting-bettor-loses-220-k-when-tennessee-fails-to-cover-against-bowling-green-033833555.html

We won't learn anything about Joe Milton that we didn't already know, from his non-conference performances.

MIlton!

The scary part is that Harbaugh said this kid is a future first round draft pick. I mean, I get hyping up a kid to boost his confidence, but cmon man. Jim you cannot be that blind in assessing talent, right? Right? RIGHT? 

This doesn't surprise me. As much as I bitched in the off-season, I didn't lose any sleep over Milton transferring. Good luck to the man, but I'm happier with Cade under center.

I occasionally watch Illinois to see Peters play, and will watch Tennessee to see Milton play.  My best wishes to them.