Joe Milton III will always have an Orange Bowl MVP trophy as an accomplishment amid a college career that began at Michigan and is concluding at Tennessee.
He’s just not much for revisiting it now.
“I don’t watch the Orange Bowl anymore,” the sixth-year senior quarterback said this past week in a news conference. “That was in 2022, so I’ve let that game be. I’m just trying to get better every day from now on.”
Milton was thrust into the starting role late last season when Heisman Trophy candidate Hendon Hooker suffered a torn ACL late in the 63-38 loss at South Carolina. He then guided the Volunteers to a 56-0 thrashing of Vanderbilt in Nashville and to a surprisingly resounding 31-14 victory over Clemson in Miami Gardens.
Against the Atlantic Coast Conference champion, Milton completed 19 of 28 passes for 251 yards and three touchdowns, but nobody in Knoxville wants that to serve as his high-water mark.