Joe Milton III Recaps Tennessee Senior Day And Career On Rocky Top

Tennessee Volunteers quarterback Joe Milton III recapped his special senior day and reflected on his career with the program after a big win against Vanderbilt.

It was senior day for the Tennessee Volunteers on Saturday as they took on home-state rival Vanderbilt and took home a huge regular-season win. After the game, quarterback Joe Milton III had much to recap at the annual press conference.

He was asked about his emotions during senior day. He says, "I kind of got my emotions out Friday. My throwing session is here at the stadium before we play on Saturday, so I was just walking down the tunnel by myself on Friday, so I kind of started crying, but my coaches were in front of me, so I got to show that I'm a tough man, you know. Just playing inside this stadium for one last time was amazing. I wish the guys that come up after us take it as seriously as we do. We left a legacy here that there's only one way we play when we get inside that stadium, and that's hard. There's only two things that you can control, and that's your effort and your attitude, so once you get inside that stadium and you put those jerseys on, that's what I hope you have." 

He also says, "You know you go out with a bang every time you try to do that, but the most important one is this last one inside the stadium. You show a team that that's how we play when we get inside the stadium. That's the base that I held and that I'm going to hold on to, you know, and leave it to my guy Nico [Iamaleava]."

Milton talked about giving his all and what this means to him. "I feel like every other game we had here we could've played harder, but this one especially, you know. You want to end the season right and correctly, especially with the home-state rival. You got to be able to just go. You got to be able to give your all for Tennessee, and that's what we did tonight."

Milton spoke highly of his tight ends, Jacob Warren and McCallan Castles. "It was just Cover-0, 4-3. I knew from post-snap and pre-snap who had the tight end all week, and we had that same look. They did exactly what we thought they were going to do, and when they gave me the go-ahead to play that play, I was like, man, there is only one spot where I could put this ball, and then I looked at the tight end spot, and I was seeing who it was. I was like, Oh man, No. 2 got a hell of a night. So I just did my job and just did your job, and I did that, and he did that, and the o-line played great tonight, and you know, I just got to give props to them."

Milton was asked what made him effective throughout the night as he put up his best game on paper. He responded, "These guys (Jacob Warren and McCallan Castles) Pretty much the whole offense; you can't be Joe without the other ten guys, you know, so whatever they do and how they do it, the preparation throughout the week, the film study, to asking me questions throughout practice, you know, asking me how this ball is going to be up, how this ball is going to be, you know, just all of the small details, that's pretty much what we ask for, and as I said, those six touchdowns wouldn't happen if the other ten guys weren't doing their job at a high level."

Milton had the chance to recap his career by saying, "I don't know, man, my journey has been shakey. Three years at Michigan, the first two years playing only eight games, then my junior year, COVID happened. In 2020, you get a start and get to play three games, and your second game in the season, you get hurt, so you just look back at those things, and to be honest, I never gave myself the proof of the labor."

"This is the longest season I've ever been there, and also just making it through and also just being able to go game for game and flushing the last one. That's pretty much all you can ask for, but I didn't do it alone. I had a whole bunch of guys behind me, and you know they were telling me all the right things and keeping me up. They made sure that I was smiling because everybody knew if I wasn't smiling, nobody else would smile, so they made sure I was smiling like these two guys (Jacob Warren and McCallan Castles) day in and day out, like they always said they have my back, so just to come out here and give those two guys a touchdown, man, I feel great. I feel awesome."

Tennessee Volunteers QB Joe Milton III during the win over Vanderbilt. (Photo by Randy Sartin of USA Today Sports) 

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