Joe Milton Sets College Football On Fire With Crazy Deep Ball At Manning Passing Academy, But Fans Need To Curb Expectations

Barring unforeseen circumstances, Joe Milton will be the starting quarterback at the University of Tennessee this fall. The 23-year-old signal-caller stepped up for the Volunteers last season after an injury to Hendon Hooker and kept the nation's top-ranked offense humming right along.

Although this will be Milton's sixth year of college football, it can be the first in which he starts all 12 games. He played in 13 games over three years at Michigan before transferring to the SEC and attempting 207 passes in 11 games over the last two years.

Milton's cannon arm is what sets him apart from other quarterbacks across the country.

It was on full display at the Manning Passing Academy on Friday night. His most impressive throw of the evening saw him set up at the 35-yard-line, rollout on the play-action and unleash a bomb from the 30-yard-line.

Here's another look:

Milton's deep ball set the college football world on fire. It was all anyone could talk about for 24 hours, and understandably so!

Not only is it the offseason, where every clip of any athlete doing anything football related is worthy of all of our energy, the throw was ridiculous. No matter what time of year it is, wow. Just wow.

With that being said, it's important to curb expectations.

Joe Milton needs to silence the haters.

While Milton's arm strength is impossible to ignore, it does neither he nor an offense any good if the long balls aren't accurate. His wide receivers have to be able to catch the ball.

Although precision and location of his throw ultimately didn't matter because it occurred during a showcase, the throw before his viral 80-yard(ish) toss was not quite as impressive. Rather, it was more impressive in terms of arm strength, but much less so in terms of accuracy.

The knock on Milton has long been his accuracy, though he dispelled some of those concerns last year.

Milton can throw the ball a country mile. That's great. It will be a lot of fun to see him continue to launch it in Josh Heupel's offense next fall.

However, if the Volunteers want to replicate their 11-win, Orange Bowl-winning season from a year ago, Milton will need to connect on the shorter throws and put his deep ball on the money. Considering that he completed 65% of his 82 passes last season, the potential is there.

But it was a small sample size and Jalin Hyaatt — Tennessee's fastest go-route receiver — is gone.

If Milton can't make the short throws over the middle or to the sideline, then what good does an 80-yard Hail Mary do? It doesn't.