14-in-14 2023: Tennessee Volunteers
Tennessee is back in a way that hasn’t been seen since the likes of Peyton Manning and Tee Martin graced Rocky Top. Can Joe Milton be the next in line of great Volunteer quarterbacks?
By: The Waco Kid
Last season we saw an all-time revival by Hendon Hooker and Josh Heupel of a program that had recently made news for all the wrong reasons. Yes, we are talking about the Jeremy Pruitt McDonald’s brown bag special. After Pruitt decided to pay off recruits in the most classy way possible, McD’s bags of money, it seemed the University of Tennessee was looking down the barrel at a few years of bad karma. But lo and behold a man by the name of Josh Heupel was brought in to wipe the slate clean and finally get the ice cream machine back working after years of hearing “Sorry it’s broken.” I personally thought he was brought in as a scapegoat to roll with any sanctions brought down on the program by the NCAA. Boy, was I wrong. Not only did he somehow handle crippling penalties being levied against his new program, he also took it from middle of the East pack to top contender with the addition of transfer quarterback Hendon Hooker from Virginia Tech.
The Vols quickly became a high-powered offense with a defense that could hold its own. Under Heupel, Big Orange scored an average of 46.1 points per game. PER GAME!! And that was against mostly SEC talent and a Clemson team that is always stout. There was nothing rocky about Rocky Top in 2022. Tennessee was able to eclipse all expectations going into the year and then some. I mean two years prior this team was only good for three wins. A culture shift brought highly touted transfers and recruits and the allure of playing at Neyland Stadium kept a lot of kids interested in playing for the orange and white checkerboard.
State of the Program: 9/12 biscuits. The Vols are a dark horse to win the East. These are Pillsbury Golden Flaky layer biscuits. With a few more layers, they can be elite.
We are now looking at a premier program in the East, and if you couldn’t tell we are drunk on that Tennessee whisky. While everyone had their eyes on Georgia, Alabama, and LSU last year, Josh Heupel was slowly spiking our drinks with that backwoods firewater and making us want to text the Vols, shamefully, in the middle of the night saying “You in?”
It would seem nearly impossible to replicate a season like 2022, but this team is returning a Michigan transfer quarterback by the name of Joe Milton who has a Howitzer of an arm. They are also returning a running back in Jaylen Wright who rushed for over 870 yards and 10 touchdowns while averaging 6 yards per carry. Not only is Wright returning but so is Jabari Small who added another 734 yards on the ground and 13 touchdowns. So they return a sound backfield, what does that matter? How about we add in receivers Bru McCoy, Squirrel White, and Ramel Keyton who combined for over 1,700 yards receiving and 11 touchdowns while playing second fiddle to Jaylin Hyatt. Still not enough for the nay-sayers? On top of that, UT returns three offensive linemen, Jackson Lampley, Ollie Lane, and Cooper Mays, who between all three of them allowed one sack. They also return three-year starting offensive linemen Javontez Spraggins and split starters Jeremiah Crawford and Gerald Mincey who took turns at left tackle in 2022. They also bolstered the trenches through the portal with Andrej Karic (LG, Texas) and John Campbell Jr. (RT, Miami) who will be counted on to replace Darnell Wright. This may be the most experienced and stacked offensive line group in the country.
With the amount of returning core players the state of the program is no longer in flux. It is in a state of maintaining the standard they have set while hopefully taking that extra step to beat Alabama again and take down East foe Georgia. They also drew Texas A&M from the West so that should be a good game with dire implications for both teams. If the Vols can win two out of three of those contests, they may be looking at their first playoff berth.
What went right in 2022
Almost everything that could have gone right for the Knoxville kids did go right in 2022. They took a struggling program out of the dumpster behind the McDonald’s and turned it into a Michelin-star restaurant that only serves meals to the best across the nation. Hendon Hooker and that offense lit up the Appalachian Trail like Willie Nelson on tour in the 80s.
Not only did they steamroll the majority of the competition in the East, they also knocked off the top two teams in the West, Alabama and LSU, en route to a beat down of Clemson in the Orange Bowl. Not many teams in the nation could win games against these three opponents all in one season let alone in two and a half months. The Vols ended on such a high note with that victory in the Orange Bowl, and they did it with then-backup Joe Milton, who will be the starter going into the 2023 season. If that is not a good way to enter a new year of college football, I do not know what is. Milton should be coming in with all the confidence in the world, which was one thing we were not sure he possessed before the final games of last season. Now the dude knows he can hang with anyone in the country, which makes for a dangerous mindset coupled with a lethal skill set.
Heupel ended the offseason with the number eleven recruiting class in the nation, including a commitment from top-two quarterback prospect Nico Iamaleava. And Iamabeleava in this kid. They are grooming him to become the next great in a line of ring-of-honor quarterbacks and as soon as Milton’s time is up, they won’t skip a beat with this guy. They also picked up four four-star transfers from the portal that should help make an impact after leaving Power 5 West Coast schools.
What went wrong in 2022
We can always pinpoint what went wrong in any given season by downward changes of momentum throughout the year. Tennessee was riding high through October, racking up wins against ranked opponents Pitt, LSU, and Alabama and adding in division victories over Florida and Kentucky. Then they met head-on with the beast of the East, UGA. In a top-ten matchup, the Vols barely folded to the number-one team in the nation by only 14 points. But that loss pushed them into a bit of a spiral. Yes, they won the next game against an inferior Mizzou team but then got absolutely demolished by a far less talented South Carolina team. Now some may say that loss could be attributed to Hendon Hooker getting injured during the game but they were already down by 21 points. It seemed as though, two weeks earlier, the Dawgs had really left a dent in the 2023 iteration of the Volunteers.
You can win against as many ranked opponents as you want, but if you lose to the University of South Carolina, quarterbacked by that slithery little snake Spencer Rattler, none of those wins mean much of anything. Everyone has a down week, except for national contenders. This game is where everything crumbled for the Vols. One moment of weakness and all hopes at a National Title were pretty much out the window for 2022. Thankfully Heupel got right back on that horse and did not allow his team to fall anymore the rest of the season, but it was too little too late after giving up 60+ points to an underdog in a loss.
Some may say the defense was a struggling point throughout the season, but I am not sure I see it that way. There were so many games where UT held their opponent to under 30 points and in most other games, they had built such a strong lead there was really no reason to keep starters on the field or play all out and risk potential injury. I think this may have skewed the points allowed column a little bit but still if we have to point out a flaw it was that the defense was giving up a decent amount of points per game no matter what the scenario may have been.
What the Vols need in 2023
Like so many other top competitors in the nation, so goes the quarterback, so goes the team. This may ring true the most for this Tennessee team. They have the potential and talent to run the table, play in Atlanta, and head to the College Football Playoffs. The pieces are there; o-line, check, running backs, check, receivers, check, returning defensive starters, check. The only huge question mark is how good can Joe Milton be?
He has all of the size and talent in the world. Standing at 6’5, 236 lbs Milton is a monster of a human being, let alone a quarterback, with the ability to chunk the ball 70 yards through the air standing still. These are Cam Newton/Anthony Richardson-type measurables. We saw how dominant both of those quarterbacks could be in the SEC and Milton may have a better arm than both.
The main concern surrounding the Michigan transfer is his overthrown balls and lack of accuracy. These are things that he has been working on in the offseason and has made strides in fixing. If he can come out and keep that arm under control, we are looking at another Cam Newton, Auburn-type year with one huge difference. Newton had minimal top-tier playmakers around him, Milton has weapons all over the field at his disposal and if utilized correctly, could produce the top offense in the nation. The ceiling is high for this team on offense. On defense, let’s be honest, all they really need to do is allow less than 28 per game and that should give enough room for wins in almost every game outside of Georgia. Honestly, the potential of this team alone has Vols fans giddy, like a 70-year-old getting excited at the slightest hint of perfume.
How they can earn some extra biscuits
It’s go big or go home for the Vols. They know the only way to earn extra biscuits with their continental breakfast is to build off of last years success, meaning make the playoffs and beat Georgia. They can afford one loss to a high-ranked opponent but have no room for error outside of that loss if they want to continue their progression as a top-tier program. I think it is now or never for Tennessee. They will have more and more talent stacked in the waiting room but with the roster they are returning in 2023, there is no reason come December they should not be one of the four teams announced for a spot in the playoffs.
And if that happens, all bets are off, they are running the table and winning it all. They just need to get there.
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