Joe Milton III turns in career performance in final act at Neyland Stadium
Joe Milton III walked out of the tunnel in an empty Neyland Stadium on Friday.
One day before he would play his last game on the turf in front of him, he grew emotional.
A path that broke away from the normality that is now abundant in college football, was on the eve of one of its final acts and Milton was reflecting on it.
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"I kind of got my (emotions) out Friday during my throwing session here at the stadium before we play on Saturday," Milton said. "Just walking down by the tunnel by myself on Friday, I kind of started crying. My coaches were in front of me, so I kind of got to show them that I'm tough."
Milton might have contained his emotions on Saturday against Vanderbilt, but he held nothing back in his game.
He finished 22-of-32 passing for 383 yards and accounted for six touchdowns--four passing and two rushing in the Vols' 48-24 win over the Commodores.
"Proud of (Milton's) resiliency," Heupel said. "He continued to prepare, fight, compete extremely well...He was really good throughout the course of the football game. Decisive, was in the right spot. He did some really good things."
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Milton connected with Ramel Keyton on the third play of the game for a 56-yard touchdown, then tossed one of his best passes of the season to McCallan Castles to give Tennessee the lead for good late in the first quarter.
"It's a play that we've had a for couple of weeks and kind have been keeping it on the backend, holding on to it," Castles said. "The whole time, Joe was like, 'It's going to be open. That guy is going to be on you and I'm going to put it right on his had. He threw a perfect ball, I just had to make the catch."
By the 14 minutes, nine second mark of the second quarter, Milton had tied a single-season career high in touchdowns, then put a stamp on a dominant first half with a keeper for the first of two rushing scores.
On senior day, Milton appropriately set a new career high with his second touchdown strike to Keyton to put Tennessee up 38-10 in the third quarter.
By the fourth quarter, Milton watched highly touted freshman Nico Iamaleava play in his place.
"You go out with a bang. Every game you try to do that," Milton said. "The most important one is the last one inside your stadium. You show a team that's how you play when you get inside their stadium. That's the legacy that I'm going to hold on to and leave it to my guy Nico (Iamaleava)."
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Milton hasn't confirmed whether or not he'll play in Tennessee's pending bowl game, but he made the most of his last game in Knoxville.
It was the culmination of nearly two years of waiting his turn--a rare decision in the age of the transfer portal where Milton's size and ceiling could have drawn plenty of suitors when Hendon Hooker started the rest of the 2021 season and much of the 2022 season.
Instead, Milton stayed. He entered his sixth season with a plethora of expectations after leading Tennessee to a convincing 31-14 Orange Bowl victory over Clemson last December.
There were up and downs, though.
Tennessee's offense failed to match the success it had the previous season, some of which was on Milton and a lot that wasn't. Still, the patience paid off.
Behind 12 starts for Milton, the Vols won eight or more games for the second-straight season and finished .500 in SEC play for the third-straight year--a feat that hasn't been accomplished since Tennessee did for a 16-year stretch between 1989-2004.
"I feel like every other game that we had here, we could have played harder," Milton said. "But this one, especially, you want to end the season right. Especially against a home state rivalry, you've got to be able to give your all for Tennessee. That's what we did tonight."
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