Why Tennessee football needs more from Joe Milton than Peyton Manning's approval | Toppmeyer

If video documentation didn’t exist, it would sound like an urban legend born on the Bayou, this quarterback from Tennessee launching a football so high and so deep through the humid air of a Louisiana night that, for a few moments, Joe Milton’s passes threatened the laws of gravity.

Bazooka Joe delighted the assembled crowd, the gathered media and even Peyton Manning himself last week at the Manning Passing Academy with his displays of arm strength normally reserved for quarterbacks on Tecmo Super Bowl.

One quarterback instructor dubbed a Milton completion that traveled more than 70 yards in the air “the CRAZIEST throw I’ve ever seen.”

These physical gifts explain why Milton was a top recruit when he signed with Michigan and why he won the Wolverines’ starting job as a redshirt sophomore. They explain why Tennessee’s coaching staff was so bullish on Milton when he transferred to the Vols before the 2021 season.

Milton’s physical gifts make him a natural to dazzle at skills camps like the one the Mannings host annually in Louisiana.

But, Milton will need more than his howitzer that serves as a right arm to thrive in his sixth-year senior season. Unlike skills camps, succeeding in SEC football games requires a quarterback to dissect an 11-man defense with precision and poise.

Milton has twice surrendered starting jobs, because no amount of arm strength can replace consistency, mechanics, decision-making, an ability to read the defense, and a cool demeanor under fire.

Milton is just a 57.8% career passer, and that accuracy inconsistency once earned him the nickname “Overthrow Joe,” but he’s coming off what was the best year of his career, by far.

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More than highlights from any passing academy, the encouragement about Milton’s final hurrah ought to come from something he said following Tennessee’s spring game: He feels a high degree of comfort entering his third season in coach Josh Heupel’s system.

“It’s different from when I first got here until now,” Milton said in April. “I don’t have to go relearn this play twice. I can understand what’s going on. My coach calls a play, I know what’s going on.”

The encouragement also comes from Milton’s MVP performance against Clemson in the Orange Bowl, a sign that he’s ready for his star turn. In a 31-14 Vols victory, he completed a couple of bombs that reminded us of his arm strength. More impressive, though, were his pocket presence and mechanics when he read the defense and fitted perfectly placed touchdown passes into tight windows in red-zone situations.

Milton drove off his back hip to make those throws – the proper mechanics that offensive coordinator Joey Halzle wants to see.

Arm is for show. Mechanics are for pinpoint throws.

“That’s why he was putting the ball right on the money,” Halzle said of Milton’s mechanics in the Orange Bowl.

Scouts and coaches gravitate to strong-armed quarterbacks. Some things, you just can’t teach. Several of college football’s best arms convened at the Manning camp, but none can match some of the physical tools of the 6-foot-5, 242-pound Milton.

Those physical tools, plus a standout Orange Bowl performance against a brand-name opponent, have resulted in Milton’s hype train hurtling toward the season with a head of steam. That engine picked up a few more RPMs after Milton’s display at the Manning camp.

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Milton holds the reins of Heupel’s quarterback friendly offense, and the bar has been set awfully high. Before suffering a late-season knee injury, Hendon Hooker compiled one of the best single seasons in Tennessee history in 2022, complete with his 385-yard outpouring in an upset of Alabama.

Hooker showed a knack for finding the open target, he avoided miscues, and his dual-threat capabilities made defenses honor him as a runner and a passer. He was unflappable in clutch situations.

Oh, and Hooker could flick it deep, too. Tennessee led the nation with 27 completions of at least 40 yards.

What do you call a 40-yard pass for Milton? A screen pass. To be the quarterback Tennessee needs, he’ll also need to complete the third-and-4 throws.

Milton finally may be poised to do both.

“I can tell,” Peyton Manning told reporters last week, “Joe is confident.”

Blake Toppmeyer is an SEC Columnist for the USA TODAY Network. Email him at BToppmeyer@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter @btoppmeyer.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY NETWORK: Tennessee football: Joe Milton wowed Peyton Manning. What's next?