Let me borrow a phrase by the late Al Davis and apply it to Tennessee’s mindset on Saturday.

“Just win, baby.”

I know. Life could be a whole lot worse than a mid-October victory to keep division title hopes alive. Tennessee did that on Saturday by beating Texas A&M in a rare, defensive-fueled 20-13 victory (I’ll get to why that was so rare in a bit). Great teams can find a way to win ugly, and the Vols deserve credit for doing just that.

But man, Saturday was ugly for Joe Milton. Really ugly.

The Tennessee quarterback was held to 100 passing yards on 11-for-22 passing. He had a touchdown pass, and he threw an interception in the end zone when the Vols were clinging to a 14-13 lead in the 4th quarter.

He finished runs physically, but he only finished with 34 rushing yards on 8 carries.

Forget the box score, though. What did your eyes tell you? Your eyes should’ve told you something obvious.

If Tennessee wins any big games in 2023, it won’t be because of Milton. It’ll be despite Milton.

Does that sound too harsh? It shouldn’t. Milton, even in a winning effort, was disappointing. The guy with an arm better than Uncle Rico entered the day ranked No. 14 in the SEC in passes of 20 yards and the Vols were last in the SEC in explosive pass plays. And no, that wasn’t just the byproduct of the Bru McCoy injury. Tennessee’s longest pass of the day was a 17-yard pass to Squirrell White, wherein he ran a comeback route.

To be fair, Ramel Keyton did have another drop on a ball that would’ve been a touchdown. Perhaps if he had hauled that in, the conversation with Milton wouldn’t be quite as negative. That would’ve been a 42-yard touchdown pass.

Still, though.

Tennessee’s passing offense was bailed out by a go-ahead, 39-yard punt return touchdown by Dee Williams, as well as 2 late interceptions of Max Johnson. The non-Milton elements of Tennessee — the run game, the defense and special teams — were fantastic. Well, outside of a Charles Campbell missed kick, those areas were lights out.

Tim Banks continued to lead a prepared, disciplined Vols defense. Anything short of that and you know what chant would’ve been heard loud and clear in Neyland Stadium by day’s end.

“WE WANT NI-CO!”

“WE WANT NI-CO!”

“Nico,” of course, is 5-star true freshman Nico Iamaleava. He’s the future of the Vols’ passing game. The hope was that Milton, in Year 6 of college, would help bridge that gap in his final year of eligibility before Iamaleava took over.

So far, no good.

Maybe soon, it’ll be Iamaleava’s time. If Milton struggles in a couple of losing efforts, perhaps Heupel will go with Iamaleava. Alternatively, he’ll see the Milton experiment through after recruiting him back when he was the offensive coordinator at Mizzou.

If your defense of Milton is “but Tennessee is 5-1,” ask yourself a question. Has Milton reached expectations in a Power 5 game yet? In 3 SEC games, he has 4 interceptions and he averaged 7 yards per attempt with just 5 passing plays of 20 yards. Milton entered the day ranked No. 10 in the SEC in quarterback rating, and among qualified SEC signal-callers, Payton Thorne was the only one with a worse average yards per pass attempt than Milton’s 7.3. A Saturday to forget won’t exactly add to those marks.

The conversation is no longer about whether Milton can take the torch passed from Hendon Hooker. That ship has sailed. Hooker was the best quarterback on Rocky Top since Peyton Manning. Hoping that a guy who lost his starting job 2 different times would pick up where Hooker left off was ambitious at best and ridiculous at worst.

What’s hard to fathom is how Milton is still this frustrating at this stage of his career. He’s playing for Heupel, who has nothing but top-8 scoring offenses during his 5 seasons as a head coach. Milton’s 38 first-half passing yards were the fewest ever by a Heupel-coached team.

Saturday actually marked the first time that a Heupel-coached team won a game while scoring fewer than 30 points. Tennessee was previously 0-6 in those spots and at UCF, Heupel was 0-3. That was the first time that Heupel’s Vols overcame a halftime deficit.

So you’d think, hey, that’s gotta be because of the play of the quarterback, right? Here were the Vols’ second-half drives:

  • Turnover on downs (5 plays, 8 yards)
  • Punt (5 plays, 17 yards)
  • Interception (13 plays, 65 yards)
  • Field goal (11 plays, 53 yards)
  • Field goal (4 plays, 0 yards)

Four of 5 drives either ended with fewer than 20 yards or an interception. Not ideal.

It was telling to see the play-calling when the Vols had a chance to score a dagger touchdown after taking over in plus territory because of an interception. With 3 minutes left and holding onto a 17-13 lead, Milton threw 1 pass in the red zone. The CBS announcing crew was surprised that Milton even got that many opportunities to throw because he already threw a red-zone interception wherein he didn’t see Josh DeBerry drift into coverage.

On that other field goal drive, which was immediately after the red-zone pick, Milton also got just 1 opportunity to throw.

There’s a lack of trust in Milton, and it’s hard to blame the coaching staff. The announcers in the Florida game pointed out that Milton had never had a touchdown pass without setting his feet. Go figure that Milton’s first and only touchdown pass on Saturday came via a designed rollout wherein Jacob Warren was schemed wide open in the flat.

When he’s on the move, Milton isn’t going to scare you as a passer. The sample size is large enough to make that determination. Against an A&M defensive front that was first in the country in sacks and tackles for loss, that was put to the test.

And sure, one could point to A&M’s emerging defense as a reason why Milton’s performance should be excused. One could also point to Jalen Milroe having a career day as a passer against that same, healthier A&M defense in College Station last week as a reason why Milton’s performance at home left something to be desired (Milton lowered his shoulder on a run that knocked out A&M linebacker Edgerrin Cooper).

But at the midway point of the season, Milton has been underwhelming. At his best, he’ll be a game manager. Occasionally, he’ll wow you with his arm. But the heavy lifting will continue to be done by the ground game, which racked up 232 yards against a top-10 A&M run defense. Tennessee would be wise to have more designed runs for Milton, and lean into an even more ground-heavy approach than we’re used to seeing from Heupel. That’s not a crazy adjustment considering how prolific Heupel’s rushing attacks always are.

What is an adjustment is watching a quarterback in the Heupel offense that’s more of a liability than a weapon.

There was a thought that perhaps coming off the bye, Milton would rise to the occasion. After all, Heupel’s teams had never scored fewer than 38 points coming off the bye week. This was the same Tennessee team that scored at least 30 points in each of its last 12 games at Neyland Stadium.

No longer is that the case. Another disappointing passing effort is to blame for that.

No, Milton isn’t to blame for a losing effort. He has the other more established areas of this Tennessee team to thank for that. But even in a winning effort, it’s hard to imagine that version of the Vols maintaining SEC title hopes late into November like last year’s squad.

Maybe Tennessee can somehow do that despite Milton — just don’t bank on it being because of him.