Joe Milton III (born March 6, 2000) is an

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...

for the

Tennessee Volunteers The Tennessee Volunteers and Lady Volunteers are the 20 male and female varsity college athletics, intercollegiate athletics programs that represent the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, Tennessee. The Volunteers compete in NCAA Division I, ...

. He previously played for

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

Early years

Milton attended Olympia High School in

Orlando, Florida Orlando () is a city in the U.S. state of Florida and is the county seat of Orange County, Florida, Orange County. In Central Florida, it is the center of the Greater Orlando, Orlando metropolitan area, which had a population of 2,509,831, acco ...

. He committed to the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

to play college football.

College career

Michigan

Milton spent his first two years at Michigan (2018, 2019) as a backup to starter

Shea Patterson Shea Christopher Patterson (born January 17, 1997) is an American football quarterback for the New Orleans Breakers of the United States Football League (USFL). He played college football for the Michigan Wolverines (2018–2019) and the Ole M ...

. During those two years, he played in eight games, completing 6 of 11 passes for 117 yards, one

touchdown A touchdown (abbreviated as TD) is a scoring play in gridiron football. Whether running, passing, returning a kickoff or punt, or recovering a turnover, a team scores a touchdown by advancing the ball into the opponent's end zone. In Ameri ...

, two

interceptions In ball-playing competitive team sports, an interception or pick is a move by a player involving a pass of the ball—whether by foot or hand, depending on the rules of the sport—in which the ball is intended for a player of the same team b ...

and also had two rushing touchdowns. Milton competed with Dylan McCaffrey to be Michigan's starter in 2020. Milton was considered the favorite after McCaffrey decided to transfer. Due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

, Michigan's season was shortened to only six games. Milton started the first three games but steadily lost more playing time to

Cade McNamara Cade McNamara (born May 28, 2000) is an American football quarterback for the Iowa Hawkeyes. McNamara was the starting quarterback for the 2021 Michigan Wolverines team won the 2021 Big Ten championship, and appeared in the College Football Pl ...

as the season progressed. Milton passed for 1,077 yards, four passing touchdowns, and four interceptions to go along with 38 carries for 109 rushing yards and one rushing touchdown in Michigan's 2–4 season.

Tennessee

Milton transferred to Tennessee, where he was named the team's starter. During the Volunteers' second game of the season against

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, Milton suffered an injury, and

Hendon Hooker Alan Hendon Hooker (born January 13, 1998) is an American football quarterback. He played college football for Virginia Tech before transferring to Tennessee in 2021. Early life and high school career Hooker attended James B. Dudley High Sch ...

, a fellow transfer quarterback from

Virginia Tech Virginia Tech (formally the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and informally VT, or VPI) is a Public university, public Land-grant college, land-grant research university with its main campus in Blacksburg, Virginia. It also ...

, replaced him in the lineup. He recorded a passing touchdown against #1

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

in relief in the 41–17 loss on November 13. Milton played in a relief role in six games the rest of the 2021 season. In the 2022 season, Hooker was the primary starter for the 11–2 Volunteers. Milton played the backup role for most the season. He had productive outings in relief of Hooker with multiple games going over 100 yards passing and scoring at least one passing touchdown. On November 19, against

South Carolina )''Animis opibusque parati'' ( for, , Latin, Prepared in mind and resources, links=no) , anthem = " Carolina";" South Carolina On My Mind" , Former = Province of South Carolina , seat = Columbia , LargestCity = Charleston , LargestMetro = ...

, Hooker sustained a season-ending ACL injury, making Milton the starter for the rest of the season. Milton made his first start of the season against Vanderbilt. He passed for 147 yards and a touchdown in the 56–0 victory. Tennessee qualified for the

Orange Bowl The Orange Bowl is an annual American college football bowl game played in the Miami metropolitan area. It has been played annually since January 1, 1935, making it, along with the Sugar Bowl and the Sun Bowl, the second-oldest bowl game in th ...

against #7 Clemson. In the game, Milton passed for 251 yards and three touchdowns in the 31–14 victory to earn MVP honors. Milton began the 2023 season as the Volunteers' starting quarterback. He threw for two passing touchdowns and ran for two rushing touchdowns in a 49–13 victory over Virginia. Following three total touchdowns in a 30–13 win over Austin Peay, Milton and the Vols had their first setback against Florida on September 16. To start Tennessee's 45–14 victory over UTSA in the following game, Milton had an 81-yard rushing touchdown on the Vols' first offensive drive. The play marked the longest rushing play by a quarterback in program history. Following conference victories over South Carolina and Texas A&M, Milton had 271 yards and two passing touchdowns in a loss to Alabama. After a 2–2 stretch, Milton passed for 383 yards and four touchdowns to go along with two rushing touchdowns in a 48–24 victory over Vanderbilt to end the regular season. The performance marked the most touchdowns accounted for by a Volunteer in a single game since 2009. Milton finished his final season with the Volunteers with a 8–4 record.

College statistics

References

External links

Tennessee Volunteers bioMichigan Wolverines bio
2000 births Living people People from Pahokee, Florida Players of American football from Palm Beach County, Florida African-American players of American football American football quarterbacks Michigan Wolverines football players Tennessee Volunteers football players 21st-century African-American sportspeople 21st-century American people {{Quarterback-stub