When my time in this life comes to an end and I get to ask about some of the great unknowns in human history, I’ll have 2 questions on the tip of my tongue. One is who killed John F. Kennedy? The other is how did Joe Milton beat Hendon Hooker for the Tennessee starting job in 2021?

After what we saw play out last year, it baffles me that Milton, who was a post-spring transfer after a disappointing stint as Michigan’s starter in 2020, beat out the more experienced and polished Hooker. Milton struggled with downfield accuracy as Josh Heupel’s QB1 and once an injury sidelined him, Hooker stepped in and delivered one of the best individual seasons we’ve ever seen from a Tennessee quarterback.

So in this era, wherein half of the FBS starting quarterbacks transferred at one point, it surprised me that Milton stuck around Knoxville after it was clear that Hooker was set to return as one of the nation’s top signal-callers. The fact that Milton will be on the sidelines for the Vols’ season-opener Thursday night against Ball State is a huge victory.

Why? Isn’t Milton a backup for a reason? Yes, but Tennessee is one of the few programs in America with a backup who has roughly a season’s worth of starts at the Power 5 level.

If you don’t believe me, check out this list of the top backup quarterbacks, courtesy of Big Game Boomer:

While I usually don’t take much stock in Big Game Boomer’s lists, you look at that and quickly realize just how thin and unproven the backup quarterback position is in this modern era of transferring.

Is that good for your team? Probably not, depending on who you root for. But is it good for the sport as a whole? Absolutely. More quarterbacks getting an opportunity to start means we’ll have better play at the position. That, coupled with more favorable offensive rules, probably explains why in 2009, only 11 FBS quarterbacks had a QB rating of 150.0 or better compared to 38 in 2021.

One of those guys was Hooker, who finished with the No. 3 quarterback rating in FBS in 2021. He also added 620 rushing yards, which was No. 9 among Power 5 quarterbacks. That number could’ve been even higher had Hooker not taken 36 sacks. It also could’ve been higher had he started from the jump instead of Milton, who Hooker says is capable of throwing the football 100 yards.

Yes, I believe him.

So if Milton’s freakish physical abilities still haven’t been refined, why then does Heupel need him in 2022? A few reasons.

Let’s remember that even if Hooker cuts down on those sacks taken, he’s still going to bring on a lot of contact with his style of play. That’s what happens when you’re willing to hang in the pocket and throw downfield, and it’s also what happens when you’re a willing and capable runner in the SEC. Tennessee offensive coordinator Alex Golesh and Heupel don’t necessarily have to adjust their game plan with Hooker based on the personnel behind him. That’s a major luxury.

Go back to 2018 LSU. Joe Burrow was a post-spring enrollee, and upon his arrival, the likes of Lowell Narcisse and Justin McMillan transferred. That was after Ed Orgeron failed to sign a class of 2018 quarterback. That basically meant the only person behind Burrow on the depth chart was redshirt freshman Myles Brennan, who was undersized and injured at the start of 2018. He was essentially an emergency quarterback for the majority of the season.

What did that mean? LSU couldn’t use Burrow as a runner the way he wanted to. Well, at least not until the 7-overtime thriller against A&M to close the regular season. But what that did was limit LSU’s offensive capabilities because of the extreme risk associated with a potential Burrow injury (it didn’t’ help that the offensive line couldn’t stay healthy).

The 2022 Kentucky squad could be another example of that. Will Levis is returning as Kentucky’s experienced starter, and ideally, he’d make his presence felt in the ground game. Like Burrow, his best day with his legs in his first season as a starter after transferring from a Big Ten school post-spring came in the regular season finale against Louisville. But Kentucky is now facing key depth issues at the position after Beau Allen surprisingly transferred at the start of fall camp. Backing up Levis is walk-on Iowa transfer Deuce Hogan and redshirt freshman Kaiya Sheron, both of whom have a combined 1 FBS pass attempt.

New Kentucky offensive coordinator Rich Scangarello now has to properly manage Levis, who famously doesn’t slide as a runner. A Levis injury could be all she wrote on Kentucky’s ability to stay afloat in SEC play.

Maybe the same would be true for Tennessee with a Hooker injury. After all, it’s clear he’s more suited to run the Heupel offense than Milton. But at the very least if Milton still lacks touch as a passer, Heupel could tweak his offense to be extremely run-heavy, which would perhaps not be the end of the world. Milton’s cannon for an armed, while untamed, still presents the threat of stretching the field. That beats having to turn to a true freshman like Tayven Jackson, who has talent but still needs to fill out more to play at this level. As we know with the yoked 245-pound, 22-year-old Milton, that’s not an issue.

Remember that Tennessee doesn’t have a single scholarship quarterback on the roster who signed in the recruiting classes from 2018-21, excluding transfers like Milton and Hooker.

Earlier in the offseason, Milton was asked why he didn’t consider leaving Tennessee even though he was set to enter 2022 as QB2 behind Hooker:

He’s right. He’s also got another year of eligibility left after 2022, meaning if he stays at Tennessee, he’ll have a chance to battle for the starting job in 2023.

Of course, in addition to battling Jackson, he’ll likely be up against 5-star Tennessee verbal commit Nico Iamaleava. That’s assuming he stays committed to Tennessee. Watching the Vols’ offense fall apart in Year 2 with Heupel might not impact his decision at all, but it certainly could. Having Milton as an insurance option prevents that likelihood. Say what you will about the reportedly millions of dollars that Iamaleava received to commit to Tennessee. In this era of NIL, a 5-star quarterback recruit flipping should never be out of the realm of possibility.

And if Iamaleava does sign on the dotted line with the Vols in December, Milton’s presence is still crucial. Having a 23-year-old with Power 5 experience in the nation’s 2 toughest conferences beats starting someone who, in all likelihood, has had extremely limited reps at the FBS level (I’ll be stunned if Jackson doesn’t take a redshirt and remain under the 4-game threshold in 2022). There’s a difference between turning to a freshman out of necessity and turning to a freshman because of readiness.

But in 2022, Milton’s role should be pretty clear. If anything goes wrong with Hooker, he’ll step in as a veteran who knows the system and can at least provide 1 dimension of the Vols’ offense at a high level. Shoot, maybe Heupel will bring Milton into games early in the 4th quarter with Tennessee up 3 scores so that he can run the ground game and take some of those hits off Hooker.

What we do know is that Milton will be on that Tennessee sideline when 2022 kicks off. Surely he could’ve had some sort of market elsewhere, though we don’t even know that that is because Milton said he never considered it. For now, as he said, he’s having fun in Knoxville.

He’ll have an important front-row seat to a whole lotta fireworks in 2022.