All Sooners

Former UCF QB McKenzie Milton Dumps on Oklahoma, Nebraska and the whole 'Midwest'

The QB who watched his coach return to Nebraska and preceded the Sooners' Dillon Gabriel in Orlando said "no one is jumping out of their seat" to live in Norman or Lincoln.

John E. Hoover

McKenzie Milton, who preceded Oklahoma’s new quarterback at Central Florida, offered some less-than-flattering opinions Wednesday about Norman, OK.

Appearing on fm 96.9 The Game — the radio home for UCF football — the former UCF quarterback was engaged in a discussion about a new NIL collective for UCF athletes, dubbed “Mission Control,” when he and co-host Mike Bianchi took the discussion in a different direction.

“When you have great fan experiences, great experiences on campus, and it’s lucrative, that’s the best recruiting pitch possible,” Milton said. “Would you rather be in Orlando, Florida, or somewhere in the Midwest? It’s kind of a no-brainer.”

Bianchi responded, “Go ahead and say Lincoln, Nebraska. I dare you.”

To which Milton replied, “What about Norman, Oklahoma?”

Milton was the Knights’ quarterback before suffering a major knee injury in the 2018 season finale. He was replaced as the starter in 2019 by Dillon Gabriel — who’s now the starting quarterback at OU.

As for Lincoln, that’s where Milton’s old coach, Scott Frost, went when he left UCF for his alma mater, Nebraska.

Milton added to the original tweet, posting more thoughts of his own on his comments.

“Not shade y’all, it’s fact,” he wrote. “There’s a reason Orlando is the fastest growing city in comparison to these other places. I’m sorry, but the only recruiting pitch (that) these blue bloods have is the they are just that. No one is jumping out of their seat to move move Lincoln or Norman.”

Milton remained at UCF but didn’t play for two years after his knee injury, then reemerged last year as a transfer at Florida State, where he played in six games and passed for 775 yards with three touchdowns and six interceptions.

Published
John E. Hoover
JOHN E. HOOVER

John is an award-winning journalist whose work spans five decades in Oklahoma, with multiple state, regional and national awards as a sportswriter at various newspapers. During his newspaper career, John covered the Dallas Cowboys, the Kansas City Chiefs, the Oklahoma Sooners, the Oklahoma State Cowboys, the Arkansas Razorbacks and much more. In 2016, John changed careers, migrating into radio and launching a YouTube channel, and has built a successful independent media company, DanCam Media. From there, John has written under the banners of Sporting News, Sports Illustrated, Fan Nation and a handful of local and national magazines while hosting daily sports talk radio shows in Oklahoma City, Tulsa and statewide. John has also spoken on Capitol Hill in Oklahoma City in a successful effort to put more certified athletic trainers in Oklahoma public high schools. Among the dozens of awards he has won, John most cherishes his national "Beat Writer of the Year" from the Associated Press Sports Editors, Oklahoma's "Best Sports Column" from the Society of Professional Journalists, and Two "Excellence in Sports Medicine Reporting" Awards from the National Athletic Trainers Association. John holds a bachelor's degree in Mass Communications from East Central University in Ada, OK. Born and raised in North Pole, Alaska, John played football and wrote for the school paper at Ada High School in Ada, OK. He enjoys books, movies and travel, and lives in Broken Arrow, OK, with his wife and two kids.

Home/Football