{"id":15374,"date":"2023-09-01T16:36:24","date_gmt":"2023-09-01T21:36:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/?p=15374"},"modified":"2023-09-01T16:36:24","modified_gmt":"2023-09-01T21:36:24","slug":"desmond-howard-picks-tennessee-as-georgias-biggest-challenger-in-the-sec","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/desmond-howard-picks-tennessee-as-georgias-biggest-challenger-in-the-sec\/","title":{"rendered":"Desmond Howard picks Tennessee as Georgia\u2019s biggest challenger in the SEC"},"content":{"rendered":"

ESPN analyst Desmond Howard is down on the SEC. Howard is a believer in Georgia<\/a>, but outside of the Bulldogs, he sees question marks everywhere.<\/p>\n

Howard appeared on First Take<\/em> on Friday and said that Tennessee<\/a> can possibly challenge Georgia this season. However, other than the Vols, and potentially Alabama<\/a>, he isn\u2019t a believer in the conference.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the only other team that can probably compete is maybe Tennessee,\u201d Howard said. \u201cWe\u2019re looking at what Josh Heupel<\/strong><\/a> is doing with the Volunteers. They\u2019ve got this quarterback \u2014 Joe Milton<\/strong><\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Howard is taking a wait-and-see approach with Milton. He acknowledges that the Michigan<\/a> transfer has a big arm, but as he pointed out, it takes more than a big arm to win football games.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone\u2019s talking about Milton\u2019s arm and how strong he is. But this ain\u2019t baseball,\u201d Howard said. \u201cWe need accuracy. We need touch. We need everything else except just a guy who can throw a ball 100 yards. So really curious to see how Joe Milton operates in this Tennessee offense, coming off the heels of what Henson Hooker<\/strong><\/a> was able to do a year ago.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hooker had an incredible season in 2022, before it was cut short due to injury. He earned SEC Offensive Player of the Year honors and finished fifth in Heisman voting. Milton would love to pick up where Hooker left off, but doing so won\u2019t be easy. <\/p>\n

To Milton\u2019s credit, he did impress in the Orange Bowl to end last season, leading the Vols to a win over Clemson. Still, Howard wants to see more.<\/p>\n

Howard, who picked Alabama to make the College Football Playoff last week, still has question marks about the Crimson Tide quarterback situation. He does expect Alabama to be good, and he thinks Tennessee should be, too. But that\u2019s about it as far as elite teams he sees in the SEC.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would probably say maybe Tennessee, but outside of that, this isn\u2019t as strong a conference, the SEC, as people usually think that they are,\u201d Howard said.<\/p>\n

Desmond Howard details \u2018major, major concern\u2019 with Alabama quarterback situation<\/h2>\n

As mentioned, Howard is high on Alabama, but he doesn\u2019t trust the quarterback situation.<\/p>\n

The former Heisman Trophy winner turned ESPN analyst joined\u00a0First Take<\/em>\u00a0on Friday, prior to Week 1 of the college football season. News of who Alabama will start at quarterback finally broke Friday, but it didn\u2019t come out until a day before the Crimson Tide open their season.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m really concerned,\u201d Howard explained. \u201cWhen you see a guy like Nick Saban just break tradition. \u2026 Not naming a starter. There is major, major concern at that position. But then, how can you blame him?<\/p>\n

\u201cJust think, he\u2019s coming off a season where he had one of the best quarterbacks in the history of the program,\u00a0Bryce Young<\/a><\/strong>, who won the Heisman. So the standard of quarterback play was through the roof, because he was phenomenal. And now you\u2019re dealing with\u00a0Jalen Milroe<\/a><\/strong>, who is an athletic guy, and\u00a0Tyler Buchner<\/a><\/strong>, who comes over from\u00a0Notre Dame<\/a><\/strong>, but that same level of play just isn\u2019t there. So it makes it hard for Nick Saban\u2019s offensive staff, to really dial it back a little bit now and try to figure out who is going to be their starter for the 2023 season.\u201d<\/p>\n

The post Desmond Howard picks Tennessee as Georgia\u2019s biggest challenger in the SEC<\/a> appeared first on On3<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ESPN analyst Desmond Howard is down on the SEC. Howard is a believer in Georgia,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15374","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15374","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15374"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15374\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}