Tennessee football’s SEC Media Day player representatives announced
The Southeastern Conference on Monday announced player representatives for next week’s SEC Media Days in Nashville. Redshirt senior quarterback Joe Milton III, senior defensive lineman Omari Thomas and redshirt senior tight end Jacob Warren will represent the Vols.
Tennessee will go through its turn at SEC Media Days on Thursday, July 20. The event will be hosted at the Nashville Grand Hyatt — the first time it has been held in Nashville — between Monday and Thursday.
LSU, Missouri and Texas A&M start the week on Monday, followed by Auburn, Georgia, Mississippi State and Vanderbilt on Tuesday. On Wednesday it’s Alabama, Arkansas, Florida and Kentucky before Tennessee, Ole Miss and South Carolina close down the event on Thursday.
Milton takes over for redshirt senior quarterback Hendon Hooker after Hooker helped lead the Vols to an 11-2 season in 2022. Tennessee started 8-0 and climbed all the way to No. 1 in the first College Football Playoff Top 25 of the season in November behind Hooker, who at the time was a Heisman Trophy frontrunner.
Hooker tore his ACL in the loss at South Carolina on November 19 and Milton took over, leading Tennessee to a 56-0 win at Vanderbilt in the regular-season finale in Nashville on November 26 and then a 31-14 win over Clemson in the Capital One Orange Bowl at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami on December 30.
It was Tennessee’s first New Year’s Six Bowl win in the College Football Playoff era and the program’s first 11-win season since 2001.
Milton completed 19 of 28 passes for 251 yards and three touchdowns to win the Orange Bowl MVP. He passed for 971 yards and 10 touchdowns, with no interceptions, in nine games last season.
Thomas, the 6-foot-4, 316-pound interior defensive lineman from Memphis has 55 tackles, including 8.5 tackles for loss and 3.0 sacks, along with eight passes deflected and five forced fumbles, over the last three seasons. He set career highs with 27 total tackles— 15 assists and 12 solos — and 2.0 sacks last season. He had 5.0 tackles for loss as a sophomore in 2021.
Warren, the 6-foot-6, 246-pound tight end from Knoxville, has caught 37 passes for 416 yards and four touchdowns in his 26 games over the last four season. He had 12 catches for 163 yards last season, after catching 18 passes for 179 yards and there touchdowns as a junior in 2021. He appeared in four games as a sophomore in 2020, catching six passes for 73 yards and a touchdown. He played in one game as a freshman in 2019, catching one pass.
Milton is expected to be the starter at quarterback while five-star freshman Nico Iamaleava, the No. 1 overall player in the On3 ratings in the 2023 class, will back him up.
“(Milton) had a great spring,” Tennessee coach Josh Heupel said at SEC Spring Meetings in May. “He has continued to refine himself as a quarterback with his fundamentals. Really impressed with what he did as far as pocket movement in the spring. He was really accurate with the football. He has to have a great summer. I expect him to do that and go help us win some football games.”
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