Joe Milton has big shoes to fill in 2023.

He’s the successor to Hendon Hooker, a third-round NFL Draft choice of the Detroit Lions and one of the best players in all of college football a season ago. Hooker led Tennessee to an 11-2 record, an all-timer of a win over Alabama, and helped land the Vols in the Orange Bowl — a game Milton helped win. The SEC’s offensive player of the year was in the running for the Heisman until a late-season injury.

The keys to Josh Heupel’s offense now belong to Milton, and he enters the new year as The Guy for the first time in his career. As fall camp approaches, the hype train looks like it’s about to go off the rails.

“Joe Milton is hands down the most talented QB in the entire country,” SEC Network analyst Jordan Rodgers said recently. “It is not even close.”

Milton looked promising in the Orange Bowl, throwing for 251 yards and 3 touchdowns while completing 68% of his throws and going without an interception.

Heupel’s track record for developing quarterbacks is solid, and if Milton has been able to make good on all the time he has spent waiting and watching, a big season could be in store.

Most talented in the entire country, though? That’s a big claim. Milton and the Vols open the season at home on Sept. 2 against Virginia.