Tag: McKenzie Milton

Tennessee analyst McKenzie Milton hired at UCF

Tennessee offensive analyst hired at UCF as quarterbacks coach.

Tennessee offensive analyst McKenzie Milton was hired as quarterbacks coach at UCF on Tuesday.

“I’m beyond excited to be back in Orlando and part of the UCF family once again,” Milton said. “UCF holds such a special place in my heart, and to return as quarterbacks coach is truly an honor. I couldn’t be more excited to work alongside Coach Frost, who has been such a pivotal figure in my career.

“I can’t wait to help develop the next generation of Knights and build on the incredible tradition of success we’ve established here at UCF. Charge On!”

Milton was hired at Tennessee in May 2023.

Milton played quarterback for Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel at UCF. He played for the Knights from 2016-18 before transferring to Florida State.

McKenzie Milton. Photo by Dan Harralson, Vols Wire

Twitter reaction to McKenzie Milton joining Tennessee football’s staff

A look at Twitter reaction to McKenzie Milton joining Tennessee football’s staff.

McKenzie Milton joined Tennessee’s football staff as an offensive analyst on Thursday.

Milton played quarterback for Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel at UCF. He played for the Knights from 2016-18 before transferring to Florida State. Milton was a two-time American Athletic Conference Offensive Player of the Year and a top-six Heisman Trophy voting finisher.

“I couldn’t be more excited about starting my coaching career at Tennessee and reuniting with coach Heupel,” Milton said in a press release. “I am grateful to coach Heupel and director of athletics Danny White for giving me this opportunity. Their leadership makes a difference. I look forward to helping the program in any way I can.”

Following Milton joining Tennessee’s staff, Vols Wire looks at social media buzz:

McKenzie Milton joins Tennessee’s football staff as offensive analyst

McKenzie Milton joins Tennessee’s football staff as an offensive analyst.

McKenzie Milton joined Tennessee’s football staff as an offensive analyst on Thursday.

Milton played quarterback for Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel at UCF. He played for the Knights from 2016-18 before transferring to Florida State.

“McKenzie represents everything that is great about college football,” Heupel said in a press release. “His perseverance, determination and leadership are attributes that made him successful as a player and will no doubt translate to him being an outstanding future coach. He’s always been a student of the game and understands the why behind what we do. We are thrilled to welcome McKenzie, Jany and Madden to Rocky Top.”

Milton was a two-time American Athletic Conference Offensive Player of the Year and a top-six Heisman Trophy voting finisher.

“I couldn’t be more excited about starting my coaching career at Tennessee and reuniting with coach Heupel,” Milton said in a press release. “I am grateful to coach Heupel and director of athletics Danny White for giving me this opportunity. Their leadership makes a difference. I look forward to helping the program in any way I can.”

How did Jeff Lebby’s offenses rank during his tenure as the Offensive Coordinator?

Much of the excitement of this new Oklahoma Sooners coaching staff focuses on the defensive side of the ball, let’s look at how Jeff Lebby’s offenses ranked in his time as an offensive coordinator.

For the first time since the 2014 season, the Oklahoma Sooners will have a new man running the show on offense after Jeff Lebby was hired to be the offensive coordinator under new head coach Brent Venables.

While Lincoln Riley had a ton of success, his last two seasons left a lot to be desired as the Sooners floundered in Big 12 play, scraping by to win the Big 12 championship in 2020 before falling short in 2021.

From an x’s and o’s standpoint, Lebby’s hire was about as good as it could get. He’s proven capable of directing some of the nation’s top offenses in six seasons as an offensive coordinator (five in the Football Bowl Subdivision).

Runs at UCF and Ole Miss made Jeff Lebby a popular offensive coordinator candidate. His history with Brent Venables and the Oklahoma Sooners provided the connection necessary to bring him in to take over the OU offense.

The following list is how Jeff Lebby’s offenses ranked each season he was the offensive coordinator for his respective team. Most statistics were found via College Football Reference.

McKenzie Milton made his long-awaited return to college football and sports fans were emotional

Welcome back to college football, McKenzie Milton.

It’s taken over 1,000 days for McKenzie Milton to make his return to a college football field and he did so in a major moment for Florida State.

Milton’s story is a familiar one if you’re a college football fan. In November 2018, Milton was injured playing for University of Central Florida, an injury that threatened his career due to its unexpected severity and recovery complications along the way.

In 2021, now with Florida State, Milton has taken his first snaps as a college quarterback in nearly three years. On Sunday, Milton checked into FSU’s game against Notre Dame after quarterback Jordan Travis lost his helmet and could not compete in the next play.

Milton’s first play? A gorgeous completion to get FSU rolling down 38-28 in the fourth quarter.

In his first drive, Milton went four for four and led Florida State to a touchdown to kick off the comeback. In total, Milton went five of seven for 48 yards as Florida State tied up Notre Dame to send the game into overtime.

Though Milton’s night ended there, as did Florida State’s comeback hopes in a 41-38 loss, this was an incredible and inspiring moment to be witness to. Here are some other moments from Milton’s emotional comeback to college football.

Notre Dame at Florida State: Overtime Analysis

Whew.

They say it’s better to be lucky than good. We’ll find out as the season goes on if Notre Dame is both. For now, it will be satisfied with a 41-38 overtime win on the road over Florida State.

The Irish (1-0) won the coin toss and chose to defer to the Seminoles (0-1). After handing it off to Jashaun Corbin twice, McKenzie Milton appeared to fumble the ball after losing a bunch of yardage, setting up Ryan Fitzgerald for a 50-yard field goal attempt. Just before the ball was snapped, Seminoles coach Mike Norvell challenged the previous ruling, hoping for it to be changed to an incomplete pass to get Fitzgerald closer. Though Norvell eventually got the ruling he wanted to give Fitzgerald a 37-yard attempt instead, the long wait ended up icing his own kicker, who missed the field goal wide left.

All the Irish had to do was hold onto the ball to set up Jonathan Doerer. They didn’t advance very far, forcing Doerer to kick from 41 yards. Still, it was close enough because Doerer split the upright, and the Irish escaped with a victory that nearly slipped away.

Notre Dame at Florida State: Fourth-Quarter Analysis

Oh boy.

They never said college football was easy. Sometimes, you find yourself in a battle you didn’t want. That’s what Notre Dame found itself in Sunday. Eighteen unanswered points by Florida State have sent this game to overtime with a 38-38 score.

The fourth quarter began with the Seminoles knocking on the door of the end zone. A couple of defensive stands and a penalty pushed the offense back from the 1-yard line to the 8. On third-and-goal, Jordan Travis avoided the defense and found Andrew Parchment for a touchdown. A successful two-point conversion pass to Keyshawn Helton cut the Irish’s lead to 38-28.

Relying mainly on the run, the Irish only were able to get one first down on their first possession of the fourth quarter. Jay Bramblett was knocked down on the ensuing punt, but the roughing penalty only went for 5 yards, much to the chagrin of an enraged Brian Kelly. Whether there should have been a 15-yard penalty instead will be debated. What’s not debatable is that things everything was coming up Seminoles.

On the ensuing drive, Travis’ helmet was knocked off, which forced the Seminoles to go to McKenzie Milton for his first game action in three years. All he did with this sudden opportunity was complete all four pass attempts before handing it off to Treshaun Ward for an 8-yard touchdown to make it 38-35. What once seemed like a sure victory now was anything but.

Desperately needing a long offensive possession, the Irish went three-and-out save for an offside penalty on first down. Jack Coan was sacked by Keir Thomas on the final play of the drive, sending Doak Campbell Stadium into a frenzy. The Irish fans in attendance only could brace for what was to come.

Milton continued his heroics with a run-heavy attack that the Irish’s defense simply couldn’t stop. The only thing that stopped him from reaching the end zone was a bad snap on third-and-6 from the Notre Dame 25. He threw the ball out of bounds to set up Ryan Fitzgerald for a 43-yard field-goal attempt. The kick was good, and the game was tied with 40 seconds left.

With time running out, Coan completed a couple of passes to Michael Mayer to get into Seminoles territory. A crushing blow happened when Mayer dropped a pass with five seconds left that would have set up a game-winning field goal. A Hail Mary with the clock expired was picked off by Travis Jay, and to extra football we go.

McKenzie Milton returns to the field after a long journey

Florida State quarterback McKenzie Milton returned to live college football action for the first time since a leg injury nearly cost him his career.

Over the past few weeks, Florida State quarterback McKenzie Milton kept telling the media that he just wanted to talk about football, and not the injury that changed the course of his football career.

Tonight, he will get his wish.

While Milton did not get the start for the Seminoles against Notre Dame, he was inserted into the lineup in the fourth quarter. Over 1,000 days since his life changed while at Central Florida, Milton came into the huddle during a college football game.

It looked like he had not missed a single play:

Milton stepped up into the pocket and ripped a throw on an out-breaking route to complete his first attempt since that fateful game back in November of 2018. On that afternoon, Milton went down with a brutal leg injury, suffering artery and nerve damage, a dislocated knee, and torn ligaments. Doctors believed the best case scenario for him was that he would one day walk without a limp.

Not return to the field against Notre Dame, and certainly not like this.

But perhaps we should not be surprised.

“If I’m going to play I’m going to be full-go, I’m going to be better than I was or just as good,” Milton said in an interview with ESPN. “You don’t get what you deserve; you get what you earn, so you’ve got to go get it.”

Milton’s return to the practice field was inspiring for his new head coach, Mike Norvell. “You see the work, but when you know the investment that’s gone into it, and to be able to go out there and just play free and to see the lack of hesitation, it brought a smile on my face,” Norvell said. “Just to be able to have that opportunity, it’s special.”

For some context on his injury, this quote from his surgeon on his chances of ever playing again might suffice:

The crowd certainly reacted to Milton’s return as well:

Oh, and by the way, Milton led a scoring drive that Florida State capped off with a touchdown, cutting the Notre Dame lead to just three points:

Milton finished the drive completing all four of his attempt for 36 yards.

On his second drive of the game, he did this en route to leading the Seminoles to a game-tying field goal:

And yes, to his wish, we’ll be talking about football tomorrow when his name comes up in conversation.

Tale of the Tape: Leading Rushers – Kyren Williams vs. Jashaun Corbin

The Irish shouldn’t have a problem with this particular position battle.

Notre Dame will have a clear advantage at running back during its season opener against Florida State. Kyren Williams was terrific in 2020, demonstrating how capable he was at putting up 100-yard performances. In fact, the 185 yards he ran for in last year’s meeting with the Seminoles are his career high. More importantly, the Seminoles were one of five opponents against which he scored at least two touchdowns.

In 2020, Seminoles quarterback Jordan Travis was the team’s leading rusher, but as far as actual running backs, that title went to Jashaun Corbin. While it wasn’t a bad accomplishment for the Texas A&M transfer, he hardly had what you would call breakout numbers. In sizing up the two running backs in this comparison, Corbin literally was half the player Williams was last season. If Mike Norvell starts McKenzie Milton instead of Travis on Sunday, Corbin might have to pick up the slack on the ground unless Milton effectively unleashes that part of his game.

Tale of the Tape: Starting Quarterbacks – Jack Coan vs. Travis/Milton

Two of these three quarterbacks will start Sunday.

Notre Dame and Florida State could present one of the most unique quarterback battles of the first full week of the college football season. The Irish have Jack Coan, a transfer who last saw action as Wisconsin’s starting quarterback in 2019. That year, he completed 69.6 percent of his passes to lead the Big Ten and rank seventh in the nation. He won’t be expected to throw for 200 yards in every game, but he should be able to produce enough to fill the void left by Ian Book.

As of this writing, Seminoles coach Mike Norvell has not chosen whether returnee Jordan Travis or UCF transfer McKenzie Milton will start against the Irish. On one hand, Travis is familiar with the offense and by far the most mobile quarterback out of this group. On the other hand, Milton is more accomplished, most notably as the quarterback of the undefeated 2017 Knights, but he didn’t play during either of the past two seasons. It’s a big decision for Norvell as it could make a difference in this game.