If anything, that Orange bowl win is going to give Milton some much needed confidence moving forward. Could be what's needed to get everything to click for him.
The sky is the limit. He should continue to improve on the finer points, I just hope Heupel builds everything off his skill set and just presses the hell out of his advantage, and I have no reason to believe he won’t. I thought it was cool to see Milton’s increased aggression as a runner. They need to have a heavy package where you know if it’s 3 yards or less you’re gonna get it no matter what.
Milton can physically do things the overwhelming majority of football players can't do. I'm all for running him more on designed plays.
He really needs to grasp that he's a freak when he runs the ball and defenders are more scared of him than he is of them.
After watching some of his runs, looks to me like he knows defenders will go low and he’s kindof running in prep for a shot at the legs when he’s out of the pocket.
No doubt. He’s managed to get low a few times and punish them for it though. If he can continue to do that people will make half hearted attempts at arm tackles the same way they did with Leonard Fournette or Derrick Henry. In my mind him being a willing runner next year is key to the team’s success, it can be the thing that makes up for some of his weaknesses as a passer.
I'm not sure he will ever be a great runner. He has all of the physical tools to do it, but his feel and vision just seem to be lacking. More designed runs should help, but it's hard to say how much. Either way, just some success with him running the ball should be enough to make defenses account for him whether he's great at it or not. I don't think he's ever going to be a run first guy, but so long as he makes good reads and stays accurate, running enough to keep defenses account for doing it should make it all work.
It seemed to me that he showed a lot more feel and assertiveness when running than he did last year. I don’t think soft as baby shit would be too harsh in describing how he ran last year. Another step forward from where he was at the end of this year and they might be cooking with peanut oil. But I don’t even really think designed runs are necessary other than QB power in a heavy package to pick up first downs in short yardage. I don’t think he needs to be terribly productive in terms of yardage or anything, just need him to be aware enough to tuck it and bolt straight to open field when things break down. Corners and the smaller linebackers these days will not want to tackle him late in games when they’ve already gone 60+ snaps.
There were a couple where he made the throw, the DB, just made the play. There was one I specifically remember to Keyton that was beautiful, the corner just made a heckuva play.
What does Milton's yards per completion look like? You can throw 70% and still be looking at 4th downs if you aren't throwing down the field much.
You joke, but I was curious so I checked. If you take just the SC, Vandy and Clemson games, Milton's Y/A and AY/A would have ranked #23 and #3 among FBS quarterbacks this year. And obviously that is an unfavorable comparison in terms of sample size because that doesn't include cupcakes/garbage time, and the other QB's on the list are obviously to some extent benefitting from beating up on weaker competition. Edit: Just for some sunshine pumping fun...looking at his full stats for the year. Y/A and passer rating would be second best all time. AY/A would be the best ever by a wide margin. Joe Milton for heisman 2022.
He was brought down 1 time by what seemed like a 150 lb safety hanging around his neck. I was screaming, "Just pick him up and keep running Joe!"
He can be a serious Heisman candidate, everyone is going to be talking about his arm and he's going to complete multiple ridiculous bombs. Let him gain 40 yards a game on the ground to go with that, hell let him be the short yardage back, he'll be a media darling
