In the movie “Office Space,” Milton gets banished to the basement.
That’s not the case at Tennessee.
Joe Milton III, the graduate transfer from Michigan who committed to the Volunteers two days after the Orange & White spring game, was announced Monday by first-year coach Josh Heupel as the starter for Thursday night’s season opener against Bowling Green inside Neyland Stadium. The 6-foot-5, 244-pound redshirt junior from Pahokee, Florida, beat out sophomore Harrison Bailey and Virginia Tech grad transfer Hendon Hooker for the opportunity.
Bailey started Tennessee’s final three games last season.
“I mentioned at the beginning of training camp that we thought we would have a starting quarterback by game week – Joe Milton will be our starting quarterback,” Heupel said during a noon news conference. “I talked to those guys earlier about that. I’m not naming a backup. Joe has had the opportunity to take a bunch of the reps with the ones as of late, and he has continued to develop, but we believe in the other two guys as well.