For years, Joe Milton’s talent has been a mercurial talking 
point at the tip of Michigan coaches’ tongues. There are 
the stories, repeated ad nauseum, of his arm strength. 
Early in his Michigan career, the stories go, he injured 
receivers with passes zipped in at warp speed. Eighty-
five yards, allegedly, is his maximum throwing distance.

Giles Jackson has one of those stories too, as told in a 

Zoom call with reporters Thursday.

“In practice one time, we had a deep ball, I was 

probably 70 yards out and he just launched it,” the 
sophomore receiver said. “I thought he threw it late, 
but the ball beat me to my spot. I was like, whoa. He has 
an arm I’ve never seen before.”

There’s a different tone to such a story now, though. 

Because over the course of a few hours Wednesday 

morning, everything changed for Milton. First, the Big 

Ten announced its plans to return to play after canceling the 
fall football season just five weeks prior. Then, a few hours 

later, word trickled in that senior Dylan McCaffrey was 

opting out to pursue a transfer.

Suddenly, Milton, whose precocious talent had 
always sat outside of the limelight, was in line 

to start a football game for Michigan in just 

five weeks. For Milton, it’s an opportunity 

he always deemed within reach even 

as most outside the program assumed 

McCaffrey 
would 
succeed 
Shea 

Patterson as the Wolverines’ starter.

“Nothing been on my mind to 

(transfer) somewhere else,” Milton 
said last December, ahead of the 
Citrus Bowl. “Just being patient 
and humble. It’s gonna come one 
day.”

The program did not make 

Milton available to media Thursday 
afternoon, but Jackson has seen 
his teammate seize this offseason’s 
quarterback competition, even as 
practice time has been limited due 
to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I think he’s just more focused, 

I’d say,” Jackson said. “You could 
tell, as soon as this offseason, he 
was a whole different person. He 
was more serious, more focused. 
You could tell, he wanted to play, 

and he was just more locked in.”
The two live next door in Ann Arbor 

and have developed into close friends 

over the past year, part of a bond between 

Michigan’s quarterbacks and receivers. On 

the field, that has parlayed into a trust between 

two largely inexperienced groups.
After Nico Collins signed with an agent this week, 

indicating his intentions to declare for the NFL Draft, 

the Wolverines’ only returning starting pass catchers 

are junior receiver Ronnie Bell and fifth-year senior 

tight end Nick Eubanks. That lack of experience leaves 

a heavy burden on Michigan’s sophomore trio of Giles 

Jackson, Cornelius Johnson and Mike Sainristil. The three 

combined for just 21 catches for 348 yards and a touchdown 

last season, but all fit the mold of offensive coordinator Josh 

Gattis’ speed in space philosophy.
Combined with their burgeoning connection with Milton, that 

has Jackson feeling confident.

“I’m always with him getting better, watching film,” Jackson 

said. “I know in the offseason we were getting together, throwing 
footballs together a lot. That just helped. We have a good bond.”

Put it all together and Michigan has an offense built of players 

whose talent has always lurked in the shadows, thrust into the public 
eye only by press conference hype. On the field, Milton is 6-for-11 

for 117 yards, a touchdown and two interceptions. His freshman 

year of college, in which he went 3-for-4, is the only time he’s ever 

completed more than 50 percent of his passes, including in high 

school. And in Collins, he loses the receiver who most fits with 

his vertical style of play, at least on paper.

But now, that qualifier — “on paper” — is on the verge of 
becoming a remnant of the past for Milton. In 36 days, he 

will almost certainly take the field as Michigan’s QB1. 

And when he does so, the hype will finally meet its test.

THEO MACKIE

Managing Sports Editor

You could tell, 
he wanted to 
play, and he 
was just more 

locked in.

Alec Cohen / Daily | Design by Jack Silberman

20 — Wednesday, September 23, 2020
Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

