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.
"They have handled the meeting room and the practices the right way, and I'm excited about that room as a collective group."
Tennessee's opener will have an 8 p.m. kickoff, and will be televised by the SEC Network.
Milton played in 14 career games for the Wolverines and made five starts. He completed 80 of 141 passes (56.7%) for 1,077 yards with four touchdowns and four interceptions.
VOLS STARTERS
OFFENSEQB — Joe MiltonRB — Tiyon Evans/Jabari SmallWR — Jalin HyattWR — Cedric TillmanWR — Velus Jones/JaVonta PaytonTE — Jacob Warren/Princeton FantLT — Darnell WrightLG — Jerome CarvinC — Cooper MaysRG — Javontez SpragginsRT — Cade MaysDEFENSEDE — JaQuain BlakelyDT — Matthew ButlerDT — Elijah SimmonsDE — Tyler Baron/Byron YoungMLB — Juwan MitchellWLB — Jeremy BanksCB — Alontae TaylorCB — Warren BurrellSTAR — Theo JacksonS — Jaylen McCulloughS — Trevon Flowers
Michigan was No. 16 in the Associated Press preseason poll last year and was No. 18 entering its Oct. 24 opener at Minnesota, which was a resounding 49-24 win in which Milton completed 15 of 22 passes for 225 yards and a touchdown and rushed eight times for 58 yards and a score. The Wolverines moved up to 13th after that triumph but would prevail just once more, as their disastrous 2-4 season ended with three straight cancellations due to COVID-related issues.
Milton faltered down the stretch, as a 9-of-19 passing performance that included two interceptions helped result in a 49-11 loss to Wisconsin on Nov. 14. The following week against Rutgers, Milton started 5-of-12 for 89 yards as the Wolverines fell into a 17-0 hole, which resulted in Cade McNamara replacing him and rallying Michigan to a 48-42 triumph in three overtimes.
McNamara started what became Michigan's season finale against Penn State.
"I don't think there was just one thing," Heupel said when asked what separated Milton from the competition. "Sometimes coaches just say it, but I truly mean that I really do love that they push each other and that they're really positive with each other, our team and our offensive group. All three of them have a positive effect, and they have handled that throughout this entire process, which is really difficult to do.
"I really believe that all three of them have an opportunity to play at a really high level, but at the end of the day, I felt like Joe's grasp of the offense in a short amount of time and his growth in the middle portion of training camp and some physical attributes and his decision-making led us to put the ball in his hands in this first ball game."
Heupel said all three guys have prepared to be the starter, but his plan is for Milton to "play his butt off in a really good way" Thursday night. He added that Bailey and Hooker handled the news in a positive way.
Odds and ends
Both offensive coordinator Alex Golesh and defensive coordinator Tim Banks will coach from the booth, according to Heupel, who added that quarterbacks coach Joey Halzle will be upstairs as well. Heupel on his team's health: "I really feel like pretty much everybody is going to be available. (Offensive lineman) K'Rojhn (Calbert), with his (biceps) injury early in training camp, obviously won't be available, but pretty much everyone else will be ready to go roll. Tennessee is offering $19.72 tickets to Thursday's opener, with 1972 serving as the first night game at Neyland, which was a 28-21 downing of Penn State.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.