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ANN ARBOR, Mich. — In some ways, the Joe Milton hype train is out of control.
A redshirt sophomore, Milton has only played 47 career snaps as a quarterback at the college level, yet there’s an expectation that he could be one of the great QBs to ever strap up for Michigan football.
For now, we’ll take a quick step back and realize, yes, he has that potential, but he has to actually produce on the football field. Milton knows it, Jim Harbaugh knows it and his offensive coordinator in Josh Gattis knows it.
As Milton prepares for his first game as Michigan’s likely starting quarterback in just over a month as it travels to Minnesota, we should start by looking at how he’s earned such a role, after coming to Ann Arbor as a raw, unrefined player. Each year, he’s gotten better, more in the mold of what’s capable in college.
And that’s a credit to his hard work off the field, Gattis says.
“Joe’s really, really – if you said who’s one of the most improved players on the team, obviously I would like to throw Joe in that mix,” Gattis said. “I don’t just say that from a physical standpoint, when we’re talking about improvement, improvement comes in a number of different ways. Leadership, physically and then obviously being able to learn the offense. Joe’s been exceptional.”
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OK, that said, now let’s go nuts with the hype.
This past weekend, former Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer said on FOX’s Big Noon Kickoff that after seeing Milton warm up before The Game in 2018, that he saw a ‘Cam Newton lookalike,’ and the hype careened at high-speed, barely holding onto the rails.
Gattis shows caution in talking about Milton, what he’s capable of and his potential, but is quick to throw second-year QB Cade McNamara in the mix, as well. But, breaking away from that, Gattis notes that the type of plays that the strong-armed quarterback is making in practice, that if he can make the same throws in games, he’ll easily be an NFL player.
But just as importantly, Milton has matured from a precocious hopeful to a QB who can hold off an elder Dylan McCaffrey — who has elected to transfer, as learned a week ago when the job presumably became Milton’s.
So what has allowed Milton to take such a major step forward?
“I think it’s him learning the offense,” Gattis said. “I think it’s him taking control and command. Every day out there, he makes some type of wow play. And those wow plays aren’t just wow plays in college football, but they’d be wow plays on Sundays. Obviously, he’s blessed with a tremendous talent with arm strength, obviously he’s very athletic as a quarterback that can move in the pocket. I think that’s the biggest growth that he’s shown is his pocket presence. As a bigger guy that’s 6-foot-5, he can see over things and he can stand in the pocket and really deliver throws on time. So really excited about the development in that room.”
There have been preconceptions about what Milton can or can’t do at the QB position, and while one might be true, Gattis shrugs off the other.
Milton is widely understood to be so strong-armed that he, like Brett Favre used to, was something of a finger-breaker — that he had no touch, throwing only 100 mph fastballs. Also, because he throws so hard, many questioned his accuracy. Sure, he wasn’t the most accurate high school quarterback, but you’re playing with a different level of athlete in college. Not everyone can get under the deep ball the same way in high school as one might at the college level.
Gattis says those preconceptions are misconceptions. Yes, Milton threw really, really hard, and Michigan has toned that done some. But he’s accurate — something Gattis said it needs its quarterback to be more of compared to last year — and that everything — the QB and the wideouts — are working in tandem to make plays down the field in practice.
“Everyone’s got all five fingers, so nobody’s getting jammed, nobody’s losing anything!” Gattis said. “That’s been really well. His accuracy has been exceptional, and that’s one of the things we have talked about, taking the RPMs off of things, knowing how to give a catchable ball. Accuracy as far as ball placement was never an issue. Sometimes the issue had been in the past had been could the receivers catch it that fast. He’s done a really good job of improving in that and still maintaining power in his arm. I think so far, he’s thrown three balls (around) 70 yards out there. With a ball going like that, 70 yards, it’s hard to track a ball traveling that long – and it’s been pinpoint accuracy on each one of the throws where I’ve gotten to the point where I’ve told the receivers, ‘Don’t stop running.’”
So, yes — there’s a lot of potential hyperbole about Milton’s game and ability. He’s starting to build up a thing of legend that may be close to impossible to meet once he actually takes the field. That’s how early fan favorites become detested down the road, when they aren’t instant icons.
That said, Milton does bring a different set of physical tools that others simply don’t have. That makes him a more intriguing prospect than 90% of the quarterbacks in college football. Sometimes folklore does meet reality — as it did for Trevor Lawrence at Clemson.
That’s not a comparison we’re making, but you get the idea.
For now, we’ll focus on the fact that Milton is making ‘wow plays’ in practice, along with presumed backup Cade McNamara. And if what he does on State Street translates to Main Street, then yes, that legend will grow.
“There’s a number of different throws,” Gattis said. “Really Cade and Joe – they both had some big time throws yesterday, whether it’s guys in their face, throwing shot plays down the field. There’s been some balls where, if you’re coaching on the defensive side, you very much say, ‘Hey, there’s nothing you can do to defend that,’ because the ball placement is in the right place at the right time, throwing over top the defender – whether it’s on deep shots or intermediate throws. They’ve done an exceptional job of making those wow throws and all of our skill guys have done an exceptional job of finishing the play.”
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