Managing Joe Milton Expectations

Let's not expect anything and let it roll.  

I expect him to bust. . 

How much more can I temper my expectations than that? 

Joe Milton left his high school as a career 47% passer. Vince Young left his high school as a 58% passer.
 

Milton accounted for 46 touchdowns in his entire high school career. Vince Young accounted for 59 touchdowns in his high school senior season alone. 

Vince Young was the number one high school recruit in his class. Milton was a 3 star to 247 and ranked as the number 15 QB. 
 

Milton ran a 4.8 electronic 40 yard dash and a 4.65 20 yard shuttle. Vince Young ran a 4.48 40 yard dash. On te note about Milton running a 4.65, the NFL says a QB should run a 4.31 for an “average” time. A 4.65 is extremely poor. Cam Newton ran a 4.18 shuttle and a 4.56 40. It’s worth noting that Milton ran his 4.8 electronic time at 225 pounds and he has added 20 pounds now. Milton is not a runner in the way Young or Newton were. Nor will he ever be close. 
 

I look forward to seeing what Milton does this season, but Young was somewhat raw at 58% as a passer coming into college. Milton was a whole ‘nother project at less than 50% completion in high school. 

Look, he may not live up to it, but I'm thinking they're probably going to rename the Heisman trophy the Milton trophy after this year is done. But, I'm trying to keep expectations low.

Suggest the OP works on managing own anxiety

Can Newton’s heisman season he threw for 2800 yards, 30 touchdowns and 7 interceptions with a 66% completion percentage.
 

Shea Patterson his junior year at Michigan three for 2600 yards at 65% completion percentage. He threw 22 touchdowns and 7 interceptions. 
 

Cam Newton was a heisman level guy because of his running ability. Joe Milton will never be even half the runner Cam was. Would people be happy with Milton getting Shea’s junior year numbers? Cam played an extra game his junior season, obviously the National Championship. Before that he had 2600 yards, 28 touchdowns passing and 6 interceptions. So in 13 games Shea and Cam had almost identical passing stats. 

I'm eager to see Milton play. Also, is it time yet to start counting our chickens?

It's highly unfair to Milton to compare him to Young or Newton. And keep in mind that Meyer merely said that he looked like Newton while standing around before the Game. 

Milton would take a pretty remarkable step forward just to match what Shea Patterson did last year. Let's keep our feet on the ground.

I have very little. Just want him to be better than Shea was last year

Joe Milton and his arm named Stanley (ok I made that up) will dominate the league.  He is strong as Tarzan, Athetic as Bo Jackson and Smart as Joe Milton.  I say this because Joe is the one doing work and putting in the time learning the playbook.  You can have all the physical qualities, but if you don't understand the defenses, you WILL get exposed.  Here's to hoping Big Joe has all the tangibles!  Rooting for the kid to have a Big Joe Year!  Can I get an Amen!?

I would guess a lot of run, run, pass and clock killing makes it pretty easy to manage expectations.

The skill set he possesses got fine tuned which won him a starting job. He left DMac in the weeds. His arm is strong and looks like he is very accurate. He can extend plays and has great wheels. 

Gattis saw what he liked. Its good enough for me. I welcome the Milton era. 

You people can't dampen my excitement or expectations. 

Most likely scenero is Milton is up and down with growing pains, hopefully he shows enough ups that we have some excitement going into 2021. 

In general until proven otherwise I am going to assume UM's season mirrors that same general outline, ends much the same way as all recent seasons. Some fun moments like the beatdowns of ND and MSU last year but ultimately disappointment again. And honestly I'm not sure I care as much this season because it is a sideshow season anyways.

7-2 with hopefully respectable losses and Milton showing promise for a bigger 2021 is the most likely best case scenero. Looks inexperienced at times but shows the potential at times of what a huge QB with good athleticism and a cannon arm can do.

I don't think Milton is as fast as Newton or Young in their college days.  And I don't think Harbaugh intends to be running him nearly as much as those guys.  But I will say that Milton has a MUCH bigger arm than either Newton or Young did at this stage of their careers.  If Milton is going to make waves like they did, he is going to do it with his cannon.

My hope is he's an above-average first-year starter and that's it.  Think John Navarre, with a bit more athleticism and arm strength but a touch less accurate.  And that would be great and would set up a bright future.  But people seemingly forget that Vince Young as a sophomore ran for 14 (!) TDs and 1k yards while completing 60% of his passes at 7.4 ypa.  Young's legs were such a weapon that he wasn't asked to throw the ball a ton, and that doesn't feel like Milton brings that same combination to the table.  I'm rooting for him to play well, but I feel like some of this is hype being pushed by the program and I get worried that the reality of a first-year starter who was decidedly #3 on the depth chart before one off-season is going to disappoint a lot of people even if he made great strides. 

Comparing a kid with no starts and very few stats to a National Champion, Heisman-winning, All-Pro is complete BS.  This doesn't come from the Michigan people.  This comes from people selling subscriptions and making money off clicks.

In Soviet Russia, expectations manage you!

Anything below 2019 Joe Burrow stats for the next 2 years is ABSOLUTELY UNACCEPTABLE.

My expectations seem simple.  

Make good decisions.  Hit our open receivers.  Protect the ball.

Prosper. 

This will be a good practice season to get ready for 2021. Everyone is worried we may lose 3 or 4 games. It could happen but if Joe as good as advertise, we may only lose one. I'm more interested seeing this team playing much better at the end of the season as long as COVID does not get too out of hand.

I can’t wait for the comments during the in game thread against Minnesota. It’s either going to be “I told you he was the greatest QB to ever put on a football helmet” or “he’s the worst qb to start for Michigan and Harbaugh can’t develop quarterbacks.” It’s going to be one extreme or the other after his first series. Nothing in the middle.

I think an interesting comparison for Milton is Drew Henson. Henson was only an inch shorter, and while he could roll out or pick up a first down, neither he nor Milton are what you'd call burners.

Moreover, Henson's the only other Michigan QB I can think of with nearly the same arm strength. Milton, based on practice videos, can whip it 70-80 yards, but watch Henson's throws in the 2000 OSU game to see some "laser shots" as Brad Nessler put it.

With that comparison in mind, Milton should be good enough to beat most teams on the schedule, save for OSU and maybe PSU (Wisconsin sans Taylor will take a step back towards Iowa levels).

"Managing expectations"

A couple sentences in he starts talking about Cam Newton and Vince Young HAHA

I like Milton and the heat he throws the ball with but who fucking knows how he'll be. He beat out Dcaf who was also unproven. Its not like he beat out a real starter

Why so many down votes on this post?  Very reasonable commentary here, and nothing but good things to say 

Remember the days when board posts would actually present some form of new information and content to discuss rather than one person's unsolicited musings and opinions?

I remember those days.

My expectations for Milton as a player are a mediocre-to-average overall statistical performance with occasional moments of excellence balanced by occasional bad mistakes. Anything more than that is gravy.

My expectations for Milton as a person after his football career is done are far higher—nobody will be comparing him unfavorably to VY on that metric.

Ffs I don't understand why people have to take things out of context and/or make things out of nothing. All Leinart and Meyer said on FOX was that he had the same body as Cam Newton. Cam is 6'5, 245 while Milton is 6'5, 243....

Physically, he does look like Cam Newton. No one has ever said he is Cam Newton. In fact, Leinart even clarified that he was only saying he as the same physical characteristics

We don’t even know if Milton is going to be an average Big Ten QB yet.  Let’s just wait and see how he plays before making any comparisons to QB’s who led their teams to NC’s.

All we've seen of Joe is derfing balls at receivers' feet.  Kind of like Peters in the Outback Bowl.  I hope he's Tom and Denard rolled into one only accurate-er but let's see him face some live rounds before we mention him in the same sentence as two of the best college QB's since Troy Smith.

I’m managing expectations but am definitely hoping that for the first time in yrs that we have a guy who can take over a game. I know a lot of people were hard on Milton every time he took the field, accuracy issues.  What I saw a Qb who looked to be a step better than the competition but needed some work. 

I like how we are managing expectations by comparing him to a QB who had one of the greatest seasons of all time. 

Expectations Managed!