Inside Joe Miltonâs day with SEC media â arm obsession, Vols talk and âPawwwlllâ
(by Joe Rexrode)
NASHVILLE, Tenn. â Tennessee quarterback Joe Milton fielded more questions about how far he can throw things than about anything else during five straight hours of interacting with reporters and other content creators Thursday.
The second-most asked question during Miltonâs nonstop stretch at the Grand Hyatt, on the final day of SEC media days, may have been this from radio producers to UT associate communications director Sean Barows: âAny chance we can get Joe on for a few minutes?â
As SEC Networkâs Peter Burns interviewed Milton at 11:04 a.m. on the second floor, near radio row, Barows was a few feet away telling such a producer asking such a question that it might be tough. Milton had already received more requests than Tennessee coach Josh Heupel, Barows explained.
âWow,â the producer replied. âNo kidding.â
Tennessee granted The Athletic full access to Milton â most of the time spent by SEC players and coaches is in areas restricted to all but the leagueâs network and other broadcast partners â for a glimpse at what this is like for a player. Milton is one of the leagueâs most interesting, a 23-year-old sixth-year senior taking over Heupelâs surging program in his last chance to put together a successful starting season and show heâs an NFL prospect, not just the biggest arm known to football.
Those five hours for the magnetic Milton included laughs, jokes, autographs for fans, photos, videos, Milton impersonations of Heupel and Paul Finebaum, clear themes about his journey to this point, three bathroom breaks and no food. Milton encountered some off-the-wall questions, some fishing for spicy quotes, and a lot of the same things over and over. Especially about the arm.
Burns stumped him on something else, though, and Milton had to find the answer as he got on an escalator to the third floor and the meeting room that served as UTâs makeshift headquarters. Burns asked Milton if he knew what Heupel listened to before games to get hyped up.
âI really donât know,â Milton said as he got on the escalator. âItâs got to be old-school hip hop, right? Some DMX? Maybe some 2-Pac in there?â
Milton found Heupel walking in the hallway near UTâs meeting room toward his next interview and walked with him to ask. He turned around laughing. Jay Z made sense. But ⌠Mumford and Sons? Milton started tapping on his phone to see if he could find the bandâs most popular song.
âYouâll know it,â UT photographer Andrew Ferguson told him. âYou wonât like it.â
The day had started at 5:30 a.m. (4:30 Nashville time) for Milton at his Knoxville apartment. He had breakfast at the UT team facility and then joined eight others â Heupel, teammates Omari Thomas and Jacob Warren, Barows, Ferguson, football videographer Luke Poorman and spokesmen Jason Baum and Bill Martin â on a private UT plane. The nine-seat plane, each seat featuring a stitched orange power âT,â had a quick and bumpy flight to Nashville.
The players changed into suits at the airport, the group took a bus to the hotel and at 10:30 Heupel and the players took turns answering questions from local media in their meeting room. Milton went from there to Burns, and after discovering Heupelâs musical range, it was time for him to hit the âSEC Creative Room.â
For 15 minutes, Milton was shot in a variety of pictures and videos to use on the SECâs social media platforms and in SEC Network programming. He twirled a football. He threw a football. He did the âSupermanâ gesture. He posed in front of a huge orange âT.â He hammed it up as requested.
Then it was three straight CBS rooms, 10 minutes a pop. Analyst Rick Neuheisel, a former college coach and NFL quarterback, was in the first room. He threw some âwould you ratherâ hypotheticals at Milton, such as, would you rather be afflicted with permanent bad breath or body odor? Milton reluctantly went with the breath.
Neuheisel told Milton the story of watching in disbelief during warmups before last seasonâs UT home win over Missouri as Milton launched pass after pass of more than 80 yards. He was the first person Thursday to ask the question Milton got many times and answered the same way each time: How far can you throw a football?
âI honestly donât even know,â Milton said, and as he also said repeatedly Thursday, he doesnât want to find out because he doesnât want to put a limit on himself.
Hendon Hooker, the Detroit Lions rookie who took the UT starting job from Milton in 2021 after Milton got hurt, who became one of the Volsâ greatest of all time and one of Miltonâs best friends, was another popular topic. And when Neuheisel asked Milton what Hooker taught him, Milton said âhow to be a pro,â admitting that earlier in his career he didnât grasp the preparation required to excel.
âComplacencyâ is a word Milton used several times to describe his former self.
Neuheisel asked Milton to sing âRocky Topâ and got a little bit out of him.
âThe âWoo!â was perfect,â Neuheisel said.
âThatâs my favorite part,â Milton said.
The next room involved a lot of cutting of promos for shows on CBS, which is entering its last season with SEC television rights. Milton smiled into a camera and said things such as, âThis is âCollege Football Today,ââ and âThis is âInside College Football,â stay tuned, itâs worth the watch.â
He also answered some quick hitters, such as three things he wishes he knew more about (the moon, animals and the brain were his answers). Asked who he would most like to have over for Thanksgiving, dead or alive, he answered: âHarriet Tubman.â
Asked to say as many interesting things as he could about himself for 20 seconds, he mentioned his love for designer Louis Vuitton and pointed to his Louis Vuitton sneakers. That required a do-over â no brand names, please.
Nuts and bolts football talk got heavier in the next room with questioner Dennis Dodd, then on SiriusXM and SEC Radio hits. Milton seemed to enjoy talking about his teammates, including defensive players he has seen improve (Tyler Baron, Wesley Walker and Kamal Hadden were his first responses) and the speed of new receiver Dontâe Thornton Jr., a transfer from Oregon.
âItâs a different type of speed ⌠itâs unheard of,â Milton said.
He shrugged off an opportunity to hype UTâs home revenge opportunity against two-time national champ Georgia this year. That happened a lot Thursday, too. He said when asked about leadership: âI always tell my guys, âHave fun. Itâs a kids game. Weâre just old.ââ
At 12:17 p.m., it was time to head out of the restricted area on the second floor of the Grand Hyatt and walk over to the general media area. Milton had a 10-minute press conference coming up with âelectronic media.â Barows leaned close to him as they walked and said: âThis is one of the rooms where you kind of have to be aware.â
Seven TV cameras were rolling on Milton as he entered. This presser played the hits. Leadership. Confidence in the team. Hooker. The 80-yard bomb Milton threw at the Manning Passing Academy that went viral. How far can you throw a ball, anyway? When Milton got a question about the Georgia game and the way the Bulldogs routed Hooker and the Vols last season, Milton paused.
âI donât know how to answer that question,â he said after a few seconds. âI feel like we prepared well enough. Was the experience what we wanted? Absolutely not. But at the same time, (Hooker) played his heart out. He gave it his all for Tennessee. Thatâs all that matters in that situation. Thatâs what Iâm going to do for this year. Give my all for Tennessee.â
Barows gave Milton a fist bump when it was over. It was back to the restricted area to speak with a producer gathering content for ESPN âGameDayâ and âSEC Nation.â
Milton was asked to impersonate Heupel. He started moving his arms around, made his voice higher and said: âCome on, guys. Like, what are we doing? Help me. Help me out, please.â
He was asked the most famous contact in his phone. His cousin, former NFL receiver Anquan Boldin, Milton said. He was asked to FaceTime him. Milton did, Boldin didnât answer, but then Boldin FaceTimed back. They had a brief talk as Milton turned the phone toward the producer.
Among the range of topics â yes, including the question of how far Milton can throw a football â he was given several pictures of items from the 1990s to see if he knew them (yes on âGood Burger,â no on âSeinfeld.â)
Then Milton cut a bunch of quick hitters to use for various segments, saying things such as, âNot so fast, my friend!â and âYou had one job!â The last thing he was handed was a large picture of something that recently went wild on social media, all of the SEC head coaches with long hair photoshopped onto their heads.
âOh my God,â Milton said. âNo. No. Thatâs terrible. They did coach Heupel dirty.â
Milton still had more than two hours to go. And it was back to the main media area, this time for the writers in the massive ballroom where the head coaches do their press conferences. Barows again reminded Milton of the situation, that a lot of reporters covering other teams liked to put players on the spot with âgotchaâ questions.
âDonât take the bait,â Barows said, as Milton nodded and smiled.
About 30 writers were waiting for Milton and the crowd around him got close to 60 for parts of the 20-minute session. Florida joined Georgia as a team of interest in the discussion, a few weeks after Milton said âI donât lose in Floridaâ on a podcast while at the Manning Passing Academy. That was in reference to a question about beating Clemson in the Orange Bowl, in his home state, but the Vols do travel to play the Gators this season.
Milton got through without dispensing any spice. His most interesting answer came in response to a question about how Heupel has helped him develop. âFlushâ was the answer. On a day Milton decried his previous âcomplacency,â he also mentioned a previous tendency to dwell on bad plays, saying: âI couldnât process the next play, thinking about the last one.â
Milton and Barows headed back to the other side for 15 minutes with ESPN.comâs Chris Low and Alex Scarborough. Then he got excited. It was time to sit on set with Finebaum.
âItâs time for Paul,â Milton said, then stretched it out in a popular reference to some of Finebaumâs callers: âPawwwlll!â
Their conversation produced a lot of laughter and some heartfelt thoughts on Miltonâs grandmother and her influence on him. And when it was over, Milton said to Barows as they walked out: âMan, Iâve been trying to get on that show for the longest!â
He was excited about âMarty and McGeeâ as well, having spent time with Marty Smith previously. Ryan McGee at least had fun with the obligatory arm strength question, saying the internet told him Milton could throw it four miles.
âFive,â Milton said.
Milton and Barows walked out of the studio just past 2 p.m. Watching Milton handle that many of the same questions for that long, with unwavering patience, was tiring. He hadnât had a scrap of food since breakfast in Knoxville. And now the reps were about to get faster and more frantic.
Radio row was still popping this late in SEC media days because Tennessee was held for last. Everyone wanted Milton. Everyone didnât get him, but in a little more than an hour he did eight interviews. Some of the conversation got back to granular team stuff, to his liking, and he talked about the 10 pounds or so he has dropped from his 6-5 frame to get to 235. He actually sought out an interview with a Jacksonville, Fla., station so he could clarify the âI donât lose in Floridaâ remark.
âI got to fix that, be a little more detailed on what I meant,â he said afterward. âThat wasnât meant for bulletin boards, that was just about my confidence level in my coaches and my team.â
Finally, at 3:24 p.m., it was time to take the escalator back up to the third floor and the Tennessee meeting room. Heupel, Thomas and Warren were up there waiting for him. If Milton had media fatigue, he wasnât admitting it, 44 days from returning to Nashville to open the season against Virginia at Nissan Stadium.
âI mean, itâs kind of a feeling like, whatever you ask for God is going to give you, right? I asked for these days,â Milton said. âI canât be mad that I had so many interviews. Itâs a blessing and an opportunity.â
Milton and Barows made some arm-strength jokes between interviews. But Milton never stopped answering the questions.
âI donât get too fazed about any question,â he said. âI treat every question like Iâve never heard it before. Because I feel like once you give that, âOh man, Iâm tired of that questionâ vibe, that kind of shows youâre not respectful of these peoplesâ time. Why would I do that?â
Hooker helped Milton with this, too. To get an idea of what he was in for, Milton got on YouTube and found all the Hooker interview sessions he could find from this event a year ago. He watched for quite a while, he said, but then he fell asleep.
âI woke up,â Milton said, âand they were still going on.â
With that, he laughed, thanked his final interviewer of the day and entered a room where the Vols and bunch of pizza awaited him.
in a long line of piles of stupid woke 
yâallâs boy
