Tennessee veteran quarterback Joe Milton III has been named to the Maxwell Award Watch List on Monday as fall camp officially opens on Wednesday. Milton is one of 85 players to be named to the watch list.
The Maxwell Award is given annually to the nation’s most outstanding player. Former Alabama quarterback Bryce Young and current USC quarterback Caleb Williams are the two most recent winners of the award.
Tennessee’s lone Maxwell Award winner in program history is quarterback Peyton Manning following the 1997 season.
With five years of college football under his belt, Milton will take over the Tennessee offense once again for his final season at this level. Milton does have a good bit of momentum heading into the season, though.
Milton ended the 2022 Tennessee football season with two straight wins in replacement of Hendon Hooker after he suffered an ACL injury in the penultimate game of the regular season. Milton and the Vols defeated Vanderbilt on a rainy Nashville night to close the regular season before defeating Clemson in the Orange Bowl just before the New Year.
While analysts around the league haven’t been crowning him an All-SEC First Team player, Milton has been drawing significant buzz this summer.
More from RTI: Tennessee Football Preseason Awards and Watch Lists Tracker
Milton gained attention at the start of the summer while showing off his arm strength at the Barstool Sports headquarters in New York.
Then, as a counselor at the Manning Passing Academy event in June, Milton wow’d the crowd (and VFL Peyton Manning) with an unbelievable pass that soared more than 70 yards through the air and into a receiver’s hands.
During SEC Media Days, Milton told SEC Network’s Cole Cubelic that his farthest throw does start with a “9”, but wouldn’t reveal what the distance actually was.
But, ultimately, being able to throw it 70+ yards through the air only matters in a few situations per game. Milton will have a world of responsibility on his shoulders after the Tennessee offense proved how efficient and disruptive it could be under Hooker. After previous starts in the college scene didn’t always go his way, a new and mature Joe Milton is confident in his abilities heading into the season.
“I’m extremely, extremely confident,” Milton said at SEC Media Days in mid-July. “I trust the guys around me. I trust my coaches to go through the preparation with me confidently. I’m extremely confident, and I’m ready for it.”
Tennessee and quarterback Joe Milton will kick off the season on Sept. 2 against Virginia in Nashville’s Nissan Stadium.
Here’s a look at a few of the other notable Maxwell Award watch list selections from the SEC:
- Alabama RB Jase McClellan
- Arkansas QB KJ Jefferson
- Florida WR Ricky Pearsall
- Georgia TE Brock Bowers
- Kentucky QB Devin Leary
- Mississippi State QB Will Rogers
- Ole Miss RB Quinshon Judkins
- South Carolina QB Spencer Rattler
- Tennessee QB Joe Milton III
- Vanderbilt WR Will Sheppard
