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McKenzie Milton

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McKenzie Milton
Milton being interviewed at the trophy presentation for the 2017 American Athletic Conference Championship
Current position
TitleQuarterbacks coach
TeamUCF
ConferenceBig 12
Biographical details
Born (1997-10-10) October 10, 1997 (age 27)
Kapolei, Hawaii, U.S.
Playing career
2016–2020UCF
2021Florida State
Position(s)Quarterback
Coaching career (HC unless noted)
2023–2024Tennessee (OA)
2025–presentUCF (QB)
Accomplishments and honors
Awards
As a player

McKenzie Milton (born October 10, 1997) is an American college football coach who is the quarterbacks coach for the UCF Knights. He was formerly an offensive analyst for the Tennessee Volunteers from 2023 to 2024. Born in Kapolei, Hawaii, Milton began his football career as a quarterback for UCF and Florida State. Following a severe knee injury during the 2018 season at UCF, Milton transferred to Florida State in 2021 and finished his playing career with the Seminoles, before joining former UCF coach Josh Heupel at Tennessee as an offensive analyst.

College career

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UCF

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Milton was a three-star dual-threat quarterback from Mililani High School in Mililani, Hawaii. He chose UCF because of new head coach Scott Frost, the former offensive coordinator of Heisman winning quarterback Marcus Mariota, whom Milton had idolized in high school.[1] Milton started 10 games his freshman year leading the Knights to a 6–6 regular season record and an appearance in the Cure Bowl. The previous year, the Knights had gone 0–12. In his Sophomore year, Milton led the Knights to a 12–0 regular season record, winning the AAC[2] and eventually the Peach Bowl against the SEC runner-up Auburn Tigers.[3] Milton was named the AAC offensive player of the year.[4] Milton was named one of the finalists for the 2017 Heisman Trophy and placed 8th in voting. Milton was named the offensive MVP in the 2018 Peach Bowl,[5] despite not reaching a 50% completion rating (he had only been below 60% once for the entire 2017 year, and never below 50%),[6] Milton threw for two touchdowns and went 13/18 in the second half. He ended the game 16 of 35 with 242 yards, 2 touchdowns and no interceptions. Milton also excelled with his legs, picking up 116 yards on the ground and scoring a touchdown, which led all UCF rushers.[7] This was UCF's first ever Peach Bowl win, and second New Year's Six win in four years. Following the game, the Knights were ranked #1 in an NCAA recognized poll and the school was therefore entitled to claim a national championship.[a]

Injury and aftermath

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On November 23, 2018, UCF played the last game of the regular season against in-state rival University of South Florida. Early in the second quarter, Milton pulled the ball on a belly option and ran right. He was tackled by two USF players. This caused Milton to dislocate his knee.[11] He was carted off the field and then rushed to nearby Tampa General Hospital. Upon arrival, doctors found extensive damage to the arteries and nerves in his right knee. Emergency surgery was undertaken to restore arterial blood flow;[12] this involved taking the saphenous vein out of his left leg and transferring the vessel to the right leg to restore blood flow to that limb.[13] The surgery was successful. Two more surgeries followed over the course of several days. Milton was discharged from the hospital on November 30. Milton underwent reconstructive knee surgery in January 2019.[14]

In an interview he gave for ESPN's Andrea Adelson as the second anniversary of his injury approached, Milton publicly revealed for the first time that he had to undergo two subsequent operations. He was walking again in the late spring of 2019, but in July woke up with what Adelson described as "searing pain" in the rebuilt knee and was unable to walk. He immediately saw a physician who put a needle in that knee, drawing out pus. The doctor told Milton that he needed an immediate surgery to keep him from losing the cadaver tissue that had been used in the initial reconstruction. After that surgery, Milton had a peripherally inserted central catheter installed for daily antibiotics, but an MRI revealed a pocket of pus behind the rebuilt knee, leading to another surgery near the start of the 2019 season. In the 2020 interview, Milton estimated that the infection set his recovery back six months. He was eventually cleared to resume football activity during the summer of 2020, and ran UCF's scout team in that season.[15]

Florida State

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In a video posted by UCF Football on December 3, 2020, Milton announced that he would seek a transfer for the 2021 college football season.[16] Milton stated in the video that he believed "It's Dillon Gabriel's team now" and would not want to remove Gabriel from the spotlight.[17] On December 13, 2020, Milton announced that he would be transferring to Florida State University to play for coach Mike Norvell.[18]

On September 5, 2021, he returned for his first game since the injury. On his first throw in Florida State's game against Notre Dame, he threw a complete pass. Notre Dame won the game 41–38. Milton completed 5 passes of 7 attempts for 48 yards and led the Seminoles back from a 10-point deficit late in the 4th quarter to tie the game and force overtime.[19]

Hula Bowl

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Milton was invited to the 2022 Hula Bowl All-star game, in which he represented Team AINA as the starting quarterback. This was his first time playing a game back in the Bounce House since 2018.[20] Milton wore a custom gold helmet representing both UCF on one side and Florida State on the other, with a peace fingers sticker on the back representing the recent passing of friend and former UCF teammate Otis Anderson Jr.[21]

NIL venture

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On July 1, 2021, NCAA student-athletes were allowed to receive compensation for use of their name, image, and likeness (NIL) for the first time, and Milton was one of the first athletes to take advantage of the new rules. He and Miami quarterback D'Eriq King became the co-founders and public faces of Dreamfield, a company specializing in booking live appearances for student-athletes. Dreamfield also offers non-fungible tokens (NFTs), digital art works that cannot be duplicated and are purchased with cryptocurrency. Milton was the subject of Dreamland's first NFT auction, set for July 6, 2021.[22]

Statistics

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Season Games Passing Rushing
GP Record Comp Att Pct Yards Avg TD Int Rate Att Yards Avg TD
UCF Knights
2016 10 4–6 194 336 57.7 1,983 5.9 10 7 113.0 100 158 1.6 3
2017 13 13–0 265 395 67.1 4,037 10.2 37 9 179.3 106 613 5.8 8
2018 10 10–0 171 289 59.2 2,663 9.2 25 6 161.0 79 307 3.9 9
2019 DNP
2020
Florida State Seminoles
2021 6 0–4 81 139 58.3 775 5.6 3 6 103.6 31 -13 -0.4 0
Career 39 27−10 711 1,159 61.3 9,458 8.2 75 28 146.4 316 1,065 3.4 20

Coaching career

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On May 23, 2023, Milton was hired by the University of Tennessee as an offensive analyst, reuniting with his former head coach Josh Heupel.[23][24][25]

On December 10, 2024, following the announcement that his former coach Scott Frost was returning to UCF as their head coach, Milton was announced as UCF's next quarterback coach, reuniting him both with Frost and UCF.[26]

References

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  1. ^ Hummer, Chris (November 2, 2017). "In McKenzie Milton, Scott Frost has molded another Hawaiian QB sensation". 247sports. Retrieved November 29, 2017.
  2. ^ "American Athletic Conference – All Sports Conference Standings". theamerican.org. Retrieved November 29, 2017.
  3. ^ Wittry, Andy (January 1, 2018). "Peach Bowl 2018: UCF holds off Auburn to cap perfect 13–0 season". NCAA.com. Retrieved January 3, 2018.
  4. ^ Green, Shannon (November 29, 2017). "UCF's Scott Frost named AAC coach of year, McKenzie Milton also earns top honors". Orlando Sentinel. Retrieved November 29, 2017.
  5. ^ "Central Florida completes perfect season with defeat of Auburn in Peach Bowl". USA TODAY. Associated Press. January 1, 2018. Retrieved January 3, 2018.
  6. ^ "McKenzie Milton". ESPN.com. Retrieved January 3, 2018.
  7. ^ "StatMonitr Stat Feed". stats.statbroadcast.com. Retrieved January 3, 2018.
  8. ^ "2017 Rankings, Week 17". Colley Matrix. Retrieved May 29, 2019.
  9. ^ "Football Bowl Subdivision Records" (PDF). NCAA. p. 109. Retrieved January 10, 2018.
  10. ^ Seeley, Andy (January 10, 2018). "Knights Ranked No. 1 – UCF" (Press release). UCF Athletics. Archived from the original on March 22, 2018. Retrieved January 18, 2018.
  11. ^ "Mckenzie Milton Injury". CBS. November 24, 2018. Retrieved December 1, 2018.
  12. ^ "Mckenzie Milton out of Hospital". ESPN. December 2018. Retrieved December 1, 2018.
  13. ^ Milton, McKenzie (April 18, 2019). "UCF QB McKenzie Milton's journey, in his own words: 'I got hurt for a reason'". ESPN.com. Retrieved November 24, 2020.
  14. ^ "Mckenzie Milton Update". Sporting News. Retrieved December 1, 2018.
  15. ^ Adelson, Andrea (November 24, 2020). "UCF's McKenzie Milton takes one more step toward improbable comeback". ESPN.com. Retrieved November 24, 2020.
  16. ^ "UCF QB Milton enters portal, seeks starting job". ESPN.com. December 3, 2020. Retrieved December 3, 2020.
  17. ^ @ucf_football (December 3, 2020). "Mahalo, McKenzie #10hana" (Tweet). Retrieved December 3, 2020 – via Twitter.
  18. ^ "QB McKenzie Milton is transferring to FSU". Noles247.
  19. ^ "Notre Dame vs. Florida State – Box Score – September 5, 2021 – ESPN". ESPN.com.
  20. ^ "McKenzie Milton to represent UCF and Florida State in Hula Bowl". clickorlando.com. January 10, 2022.
  21. ^ "WATCH: McKenzie Milton shows off custom Hula Bowl Helmet". si.com. January 12, 2022.
  22. ^ Adelson, Andrea (July 1, 2021). "Florida State's McKenzie Milton, Miami's D'Eriq King join in on NIL platform Dreamfield". ESPN.com. Retrieved July 1, 2021.
  23. ^ "McKenzie Milton Joins Tennessee Football Staff". UT Sports. May 23, 2023. Retrieved November 8, 2023.
  24. ^ "Former UCF star QB McKenzie Milton joins Tennessee as offensive analyst". AP News. May 25, 2023. Retrieved November 8, 2023.
  25. ^ Gray, Nick (May 25, 2023). "Former UCF star McKenzie Milton reunites with Josh Heupel as Tennessee football offensive analyst". They Daytona Beach News-Journal. Retrieved November 8, 2023.
  26. ^ "UCF Football on X (formerly Twitter): Welcome Back to UCF McKenzieMil10".

Notes

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  1. ^ UCF claims a national championship for the 2017 season, and the team was ranked number 1 by the Colley Matrix, an NCAA-recognized selector of national champions.[8][9][10]
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