Milton Excited to Be in the Mix at Wide Receiver
August 18, 2014 | Football
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - If anyone is excited to be back out on the football field, it's University of Louisville wide receiver Matt Milton.
The redshirt senior from Belleville, Ill., will look to work into a starting role during camp, something that he feels is very possible.
"Coming into fall camp I just wanted to play like a starter, act like one, work like one. Get in there and learn the offense as best I can so I can help the team."
A transfer from the University of Tennessee, Milton played in 10 games as a Volunteer before sitting out the 2012 season in compliance with NCAA transfer rules.
A knee injury followed by surgery kept him off the field during the 2013 spring season and held him to minimal playing time last fall. Milton saw action in four games for the Cardinals, making his debut in the season opener against Ohio.
Despite his battles with injuries, Milton is more enthusiastic each day about practice.
"The first couple of days you're getting your legs up under you, you're tired and stuff like that," Milton said. "But today it was a lot better about working with the quarterbacks and just route timing. I mean, when you're tired you're going to be off a little bit, but the best thing to do is work while you're tired so in the game it's easy."
With that enthusiasm comes a higher level of comfort and confidence. The addition of shoulder pads during Thursday's practice allowed the players to elevate their play and feel as though they were in more of a game-like situation.
"You can't play football without pads, so the sooner the better," Milton said. "I need to get everything on. I need my pants, I need the pads and everything so I can feel like I would in the game, so I can play like that in practice."
Milton is also feeling confortable receiving from both redshirt sophomore quarterback Will Gardner and freshman quarterback Reggie Bonnafon. He's noticed that both are becoming more confident in their abilities, which helps everyone else on the field as well.
"I think [Will] has more confidence than us now because we're getting more comfortable and that makes him feel better too. He's looking good," he said.
"[Reggie's] a real confident kid," he added. "I think in football confidence is one of the biggest things. You lose your confidence, you don't have anything. And I like his athleticism. I saw him running a little option today and he looked good."
Perhaps one of Milton's most notable qualities as a player is his height. Standing at 6-foot-5, Milton will be a big target and has the athleticism to continue the run. At Mascoutah High, he was ranked as the No. 20 wide receiver in the nation, but he has not yet had the opportunity to show Cardinals' fans his full capability on the field.
Along with the rest of the team, he will continue to focus on learning and perfecting this year's new playbook while trying to impress the coaching staff with both his play and leadership ability. Milton understands that these changes combined with new players means that he and the team will need to work even harder, but he is prepared to do so.
"It's a learning process because of the new offense, and we've got young guys in the morning, but some guys had to go in the afternoon too," said Milton. "But it's been pretty good, everybody's learning and getting way better from the first day to the third."
