What Michigan Fans Think About Joe Milton Starting at UT

[DiderotsGhost]

The Joe Milton thread on one of the Michigan forums is pretty interesting. 117 comments. Not sure if I'm allowed to link, but mods can delete if not:
link

Overall, Michigan fans seem pretty divided on whether Milton's failure there was the fault of Harbaugh or Milton.

Some comments:

This is either going to make Harbaugh look stupid or incompetent.

Or, hear me out, maybe we should wait until Milton actually you know, plays some games?

He won the starting job here too and had all kinds of people raving about him. Then the games started and he couldn't complete a pass. So....I hope the best for him but I'll reserve judgement. He was given the opportunity here and didn't do anything with it. Hope Tennessee works out better for him.

He tore ligaments in his thumb on his throwing hand in the MSU game (The 2nd game) - wore a brace for the rest of the season and had surgery immediately after the season which is now healed. There was only one game that he had a healthy hand least season - Minnesota. He then came in to a crowded QB room at Tennessee without the advantage of spring practice and won the job.


I just don't understand why people bring up the performance and not the injury - they will with Cade but not Milton. Either people here don't want to acknowledge the injury, are unaware of the injury or for some reason think that having torn ligaments in your thumb shouldn't affect your performance.

Fair enough (sort of), but a bad thumb doesn't make you throw into double coverage. It doesn't make you ignore open receivers. It doesn't make you throw the ball directly into a Wisconsin linebacker's chest.
A bad thumb makes you more inaccurate or might make you fumble the ball, but it doesn't make you incapable of reading a defense. After the Minnesota game, Milton couldn't functionally get through his reads.

Maybe Milton has improved as a passer at UT and will take to Heupel's offense better than at UM. But people made a litany of excuses for Milton playing poorly and kept trotting out "it's only Rutgers" whenever someone points out that McNamara led the team in passing TDs on the year despite playing approximately 4 quarters of football. But I swear Milton is your classic case of someone getting hyped to the moon because of his potential and when (as most guys do) he fails to live up to that hype everyone tries to deal with their disappointment by blaming everyone else.

Milton has alluded to this in interviews - 1) He says he paid too much attention to what people were writing about him and 2) He did what Harbaugh wanted and played through the injury and when it did affect his performance Harbaugh never gave him cover and by the end of the year he was pretty negative about the whole situation - which he says he now has grown from it.


This is the thing that people here need to realize when being negative towards players - they read comments and blogs. This situation also directly affected another player to transfer and a certain recruit not to sign.

The UT QB room had one returning player and two transfers; credit to Milton for beating out a sophomore but considering they were all new to the system because of the coaching change its not like he was that much behind the eight ball.
People keep talking about that thumb injury as if QBs haven't had injured thumbs throughout history and still performed better than Milton did. He repeatedly stared down receivers and threw balls directly into LB chests, and those issues had nothing to do with his thumb. I think we all overrated Minnesota immensely last year (they finished the year 64th per SP+ defense, and it was even lower before they held Nebraska and Minnesota to around 320 yards per game to end the year), and so his struggles (which began before him getting hurt against MSU) always get seen in this light of reproducibility that have no bearing on reality. I mean, Minnesota gave up 7 ypp last year; Rutgers, warts and all, gave up 6 ypp.
I'm sure he'll do fine against BGSU; BGSU had the 116th-best defense per SP+ last year. But people absolutely have glossed over the numerous issues he had last year that went beyond his thumb.

Eh, Milton was always considered a project. Huge upside if he hits, but a project, perhaps even a longshot (he completed less than 50% of his passes in high school...), nonetheless. So I don't know how Harbaugh could look bad if Milton doesn't work out.
Honestly, out of all of Harbaugh's QBs here, Milton might be the least surprising that he didn't pan out. If you want to use other QBs as examples that Harbaugh can't develop talent (Shea, Mccaffrey, O'Korn, Peters, Malzone, etc.) then by all means, but Milton would probably be about the last person on that list.

I work with someone that is an "All Time Great" at TN. I told him exactly what was going to happen. The buzz will be how big and athletic he is. How He is a great leader. That he has a cannon of an arm. Which of course is all true and that is the current buzz in the TN locker room.
It will be game performance that will expose his lack of decisiveness. Poor accuracy. Unable to run for even 3 yards when you need him. But then again, our QB development hasn't been that great. Perhaps they got a great QB. Either way, I wish him the best.

Like most people who watched Milton last year, it's clear that he's a heck of an athlete and has all the physical tools (minus decent speed) to be a quality QB. Problem for him is making adjustments and reading defenses is hard. His win against Minny last year looked more and more flukish as the season wore on while defenses disguised coverages knowing he would stare down receivers.
I suspect he will play well against the non-conference schedule and struggle horribly against SEC defenses. He's not the best game manager in the sense that he can lose you games with his arm and won't always pick up the 1st down with his legs. Maybe he'll prove me wrong?

Lots of opinions from Michigan fans. The debates over there remind me of VN.

I'm still skeptical that Milton is going to dramatically improve this year, and yet weirdly optimistic. I doubt he'll have any issues vs BG (and I'm hoping we win big and Hooker / Bailey get some playing time), so the real tests are Pitt and Florida. Regardless, this is the best part of the season: we're undefeated!

GBO!

 

[Orange931]

Screw Michigan and their fans.

 

[vols 30]

Nega Wolverines IMHO

 

[joevol33]

Screw Michigan and their fans.

I second this motion. All in favor say aye!

 

[ftsandersvol]

It doesn't take Milton to make Harbaugh look stupid or incompetent. I'm surprised Michigan has held on to him for this long. If he doesn't beat OSU this year, he's gone.

 

[JonGrudensAgent]

Michigan hates us.

 

[Paper_Towel]

I second this motion. All in favor say aye!

 

[VOLINVONORE]

Michigan hates us.

Some of us are not loving Michigan either. I would like to play them in a bowl game this Winter and let their fans find out what we think about them.

 

[Volatility]

Some QB’s ball out after transferring. I hope Milton is one of them.

 

[clt_tiger]

 

[NorCalVol67]

I second this motion. All in favor say aye!

Joe, you’re married.

 

[dduncan4163]

Let's hope CJH got the light to come on because his Mich film scares me a little I won't lie.

 

[Plano Vol]

Well, if he can manage not to throw two interceptions in a row it will be an improvement over last year.

 

[The Original Fade]

I can’t think of a single player that got better under Harbaugh while at Michigan

 

[37620VOL]

Them is us vis-a-vis JG

 

[Remy]

Wasn't that bad thumb or finger or whatever NOT on his throwing hand? I'm asking, I've heard it explained both ways.

 

[GoodmanVol]

Well, if he can manage not to throw two interceptions in a row it will be an improvement over last year.

Where have I heard this before… JG part deux

 

[a vol n tears]

I’m sure he has looked very good in the practices and scrimmages, but you cannot ignore the fact he made bad decisions during his Mich playing days. He must have looked good in Mich practices also to win the starting job there. Hope he plays great here. Actually hope all of them play great.

 

[number1volfanfrom76]

I hope he doesn't turn into another JG. We'll soon find out and the world is his oyster!

 

[HuntlandVolinColo]

Battered Wolverine Fans (BWF) no doubt!

 

[DERELICK_MY_VOLS]

Harbaugh is a cancerous tool. He like Pruitt lashes out at everyone else for his shortcomings. If you rattle a QB mentally it is over. Especially if it is the HC doing it.

 

[DonDiego]

What I take from this is Michigan actually has some literate fans. Good for them---send your kids to Big 10 schools---if they can't get into Ivy League schools.

 

[JustFunnN'Orange]

I cant stand either one of the Harbaugh brothers!!

 

[Old Geezer]

Hard to deny cause for concern. I would much rather have a smart, accurate QB who reads defenses and makes good decisions over a cannon arm or big run threat. If Milton becomes Guarantano at game time, I wanna see Bailey get developed.

 

[jsc1973]

Nothing they have to say really matters. Milton was a four-star out of HS, and Heupel wanted him at UT, so he has talent. It's not like Harbaugh has developed anyone since he got to Michigan anyway. He may be able to tweak a pro QB's game to be better, but he seems clueless with developing college kids' raw talent.

He's on a new team, he's got new coaches, a new system, and he won the job over another guy with experience at a Power Five school. To hell with Michigan or what he did there. Let's see what he can do for Tennessee.