Perhaps everybody now has the answer.
When reflecting on Tennessee’s first football season under Josh Heupel, the lingering question wasn’t about the frenzied offensive tempo or the defense being so effective at lost-yardage stops yet so woeful on third downs. It was this: How did Joe Milton ever win the starting quarterback job over Hendon Hooker in the first place?
Allow Volunteers second-year quarterbacks coach Joey Halzle to explain.
“When we first started working with him, Hendon was a guy who was way too far into the business model, where nothing was fun and everything was serious,” Halzle said in a news conference earlier this month, “and that wasn’t his best way to play. For some guys it is, but not for him, so we had to work on him enjoying the game.