Get up, Hendon: Tennessee tough guy Hooker stands, delivers, brings joy to Volunteers

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Tennessee’s football program was going through the usual first-season growing pains under a new staff around the time of last year’s season opener. Players recruited to run different systems weren’t entirely sure they’d succeed in new head coach Josh Heupel’s offense. Young players weren’t yet sure of their roles.

Advertisement

Offensive coordinator Alex Golesh heard the scuttlebutt. He kept tabs on how the offensive players responded to the staff. That way, he could deal with any issues head-on. But when Golesh spoke to the veterans, they told him one particular player had worked to calm his teammates through the preseason. This player had told his teammates to trust the coaches, to trust the process. If they did, the player told them, Tennessee’s offense could light up the scoreboard.

When Golesh learned the identity of the player, he couldn’t believe it. Hendon Hooker? The quarterback who transferred from Virginia Tech to play for the staff that got fired days before that staff got fired? The guy who the new staff had recruited over by bringing in Michigan transfer Joe Milton III? The guy who didn’t win the starting QB job?

Golesh would have understood completely if Hooker had said “forget these guys.” He had signed up for something completely different.

“Are you really down there talking about how they need to keep believing in us?” Golesh asked Hooker the next time they met. “Even though we didn’t start you?”

Hooker, who started and got benched multiple times at Virginia Tech, explained his mindset. “I’ve been in these positions before where I wasn’t the guy initially,” Hooker said. “My attitude toward my teammates and toward everyone else in the quarterback room has to be positive. I have to be positive so I can get through days and get efficient work out of days.”

Golesh left that meeting with another question. “Who is this guy?”

Seven months later, the answer is clear. Hooker is the guy who gave Tennessee football hope for the first time in a long time. The 6-foot-4, 218-pounder from Greensboro, N.C., began the 2021 season as a backup. He finished as a starter. Along the way, he sparked more joy than Neyland Stadium had seen in years. Hooker completed 68 percent of his passes and finished fourth in the nation in yards per attempt at 9.7. He threw 31 touchdown passes against only three interceptions, a shocking stat for a guy who threw 22 touchdown passes and seven interceptions in 18 games across the previous two seasons at Virginia Tech. Tennessee started 2021 with year zero expectations, and Hooker helped turn the Volunteers into one of the season’s pleasant surprises.

Advertisement

Needless to say, those expectations have changed after a team expected to get clobbered most Saturdays won seven games. Hooker just completed his second spring practice at Tennessee in a drastically different place than he finished his first. Last year, he was competing with two QBs who had started games under previous Tennessee coach Jeremy Pruitt. Another QB that members of Tennessee’s new coaching staff had tried and failed to recruit out of high school (Milton) was about to leave Michigan and give those coaches a second crack at landing him. This year, Hooker is Tennessee’s unquestioned starter. He entered the offseason working with coaches and teammates to fine-tune — rather than learn — the offense. He’s a celebrity in Knoxville who is learning the business side of sports as he appraises and chooses from among the name, image and likeness deals rolling his way after he helped re-energize one of sports’ most passionate fan bases.

Given all this, how did Hooker wind up on the bench to start last season?

At the end of 2020, Hooker knew his time at Virginia Tech was over.

He had taken over the starting job in 2019 after replacing Ryan Willis following an embarrassing Hokies loss to Duke. Hooker kept the job through that season and initially held off a challenge from Oregon transfer Braxton Burmeister at the start of the 2020 season. But during a screening as Hooker returned from a COVID-19 infection, doctors noticed a potential heart issue not related to COVID-19. Hooker was warned that he might need a potentially career-ending open-heart surgery. He underwent a procedure in October 2020 to determine the severity of the issue, and when he awoke, he saw his mother Wendy clapping and cheering. He wouldn’t need open-heart surgery. He could keep playing. Just not as soon as the doctor who performed that procedure suspected. “You’re good to go,” Hooker remembered the doctor telling him. “Are you going to play this weekend?” Hooker, still processing the swirl of news of the previous few days, informed the doctor he’d need to participate in a few more practices first.

Hooker returned to the field in relief of Burmeister in a loss at North Carolina and was named the starter days later. He remained the starter until a bizarre day near the end of the season at Clemson when Hooker began shivering uncontrollably on the sideline and couldn’t get warm. Hooker dropped two snaps in that game. Virginia Tech coach Justin Fuente replaced Hooker with Burmeister, but Burmeister was injured by a hard hit from a Clemson defender. Knox Kadum finished the day at QB, and Burmeister started the regular-season finale against Virginia the following week. It was clear to Hooker afterward that he needed to go elsewhere. But where?

Advertisement

Hooker’s younger brother Alston had signed in 2020 to follow in their father Alan’s footsteps at North Carolina A&T. But a reunion wasn’t in the cards. Hendon believed he could compete at the highest level of college football. He didn’t mind facing even tougher competition than he faced at Virginia Tech. Tennessee’s staff was interested, but Pruitt’s situation had grown precarious after the school had launched an investigation into allegations of recruiting violations in December 2020. Tennessee players had already begun pouring into the transfer portal as rumors about Pruitt’s future swirled following the 2020 season. An investigation into potential NCAA violations was underway. Sanctions could eventually follow. Tennessee didn’t feel like a particularly safe bet. But that also might be why Tennessee had a spot for Hooker. The Vols were Hooker’s best option to play against the best competition he could.

Hooker committed to Tennessee on Jan. 7, 2021. Pruitt was fired 11 days later.

Then came a spring practice with the roster still in flux. Hooker found himself competing against Harrison Bailey and Brian Maurer, who had each started games under Pruitt. Hooker didn’t do much to separate from the pack. “It was so crazy in the spring — kids leaving, kids coming,” Golesh said. “Hendon didn’t stick out as bad. He didn’t stick out as good. Which is what he is. He just wants to lead from a quiet place, lead by example.”

Also, quarterbacks wear a non-contact jersey at practice to keep them from getting hit by defenders. Whistles come quickly. Coaches assume sacks when, in a live game, the QB might escape and make a play. “In a red jersey, you never could tell that this dude is going to keep getting up and keep getting up,” Golesh said. “He’s going to stand in the pocket and deliver.”

But Tennessee coaches didn’t know that yet about Hooker. They’d seen his games from Virginia Tech, which were fine but not spectacular. They’d seen him at spring practice, where he was fine but not spectacular. Meanwhile, a player all of the coaches had coveted at their previous stops was about to become available.

Practically everyone who coaches quarterbacks east of the Rockies wanted Milton when he came out of Olympia High in Orlando, Fla. He stands 6-5 and weighs 245 pounds, and when he rips a deep ball, it feels as if he could hit a receiver on the moon. There were, of course, legitimate reasons that Milton had been beaten out at Michigan by Cade McNamara, but practically every coach in the market for a transfer QB just knew they could fix any mechanical or schematic issues. (Besides, Hooker had been in the same boat with Burmeister.) Milton committed to the Vols in late April.

By preseason camp, the competition wasn’t particularly close. Milton had a better arm, a bigger body and faster legs than everyone else in the QB room. Onlookers gawked as he whistled spirals to receivers. It became abundantly clear Milton was the guy, and the coaches broke that news to the other QBs in camp.

Advertisement

Afterward, Heupel noticed something different about Hooker at practice. He wasn’t pressing anymore. He remained engaged, but he played more freely. “I feel like he almost took a deep breath and gave himself a chance to relax,” Heupel said. “And he started growing and playing better.” Hooker felt it, too. “It was definitely a burden lifted off me,” he said.

Because of this and Golesh’s discovery that Hooker might have been the staff’s best advocate in the locker room despite not winning the job, Tennessee coaches were confident inserting Hooker into the Pittsburgh game after Milton went down with a leg injury in the second quarter. By the third quarter, those coaches were questioning the decisions they’d made in the previous few months.

The moment came with Tennessee trailing 34-20 late in the third. The call was a pop pass for tight end Jacob Warren. Hooker took the snap and read the field. As Hooker saw Warren coming free, Pittsburgh defensive tackle David Green beat his blocker with a swim move. With the 290-pound Green bearing down and raising his arms like a basketball defender closing out on a 3-point shooter — if the closeout defender were allowed to tackle the shooter.

Hooker stood tall in the pocket. He didn’t flinch at all as he lobbed the ball over a safety’s head and into the waiting hands of Warren.

KNOXVILLE'S OWN: @jwarren808

Back within a score.

📺 @espn
📲 https://t.co/tosAAbilSX pic.twitter.com/TXJAG4MNIu

— Tennessee Football (@Vol_Football) September 11, 2021

In the coaches’ booth in the press box, Golesh turned to quarterbacks coach Joey Halzle. “Oh my God, Joey,” Golesh said. “When was the last time you saw that?”

The coaches might not have seen that at practice with QBs in a non-contact jersey. They certainly wouldn’t have seen Hooker’s ability to escape tacklers and keep passing plays alive — which became apparent when defenders actually had to get him on the ground. Golesh, who coached at Iowa State before he joined Heupel at UCF in 2020, had watched Cyclones quarterback Brock Purdy turn negative plays into positive ones in much the same way. Hooker wasn’t perfect that day. He threw a late interception, and Tennessee lost 41-34 to the eventual ACC champ. But he had shown enough to merit a re-evaluation.

Meanwhile, the lack of a non-contact jersey had affected Milton in the opposite way. In the controlled environment of practice, he looked like a future first-round draft pick. Against live defenders, balls started sailing over the heads of receivers. With Milton still banged up, Hooker started the Vols’ win against Tennessee Tech the following week. Hooker started the loss at Florida, but Milton finished after Hooker was injured in the second half.

Advertisement

Hooker got the nod the following week against Missouri, and that day in Columbia felt like the dawn of a new age. After three seasons running a prehistoric offense under Pruitt — who seemingly wanted to recreate a bygone era of football without the participation of any of Tennessee’s opponents — the Vols’ offense was fun to watch. In that 62-24 win against the Tigers, Hooker completed 15 of 19 passes for 225 yards and three touchdowns and ran 14 times for 76 yards and a touchdown.

The team belonged to Hooker. Teammates loved his toughness. No matter how hard he got hit, Hooker sprang up and ran the next play. For that, thank Wendy Hooker. It’s her voice her son hears every time a defensive lineman slams him to the ground. “Get up, Hendon.”

“What we needed at that time was a tough guy,” Golesh said. “And we started asking guys questions, and they’re like ‘He is the leader.'”

If not for the pandemic, Hooker would have had one special year at Tennessee and then headed off to try to make an NFL team. But because 2020 didn’t count against his eligibility, he had the chance to come back. That decision wasn’t necessarily easy. The quality of the 2023 QB draft class should be much better than the quality of this one, so there is no guarantee another year will make NFL teams view Hooker more favorably. But with college players now allowed to make NIL deals, Hooker also can take advantage of the excitement he helped generate.

Want to buy a Hendon Hooker caricature T-shirt like the ones they made of all the pro stars in the 1990s? It’s a click away.

Thank you 1951 club members who came out last night! We hope you enjoyed hanging out with some of Tennessees best. More to come from this event! #govols #nil pic.twitter.com/ybPTAA6PnV

— Spyre Sports Group (@spyresports) February 4, 2022

Want to buy a replica of Hooker’s Vols jersey? Go for it.

But Hooker also hopes you’ll consider a project closer to his heart. His favorite product so far has been an illustrated book of Bible stories aimed at motivating young athletes and featuring illustrations of Hendon and brother Alston. At least one former Vol already has put the book to use.

My son is holding his favorite book, written by the University Tennessee QB Hendon Hooker. He loves this book, and we read it to him every night before bed. Thank you Hendon for using your platform to make a difference. @henhook2 pic.twitter.com/UViS3kLMY7

— Nathan Simbeck (@CoachSimbeck) March 20, 2022

Hooker said he’s spent this spring making sure he’ll be able to balance the business side and the football side when the season begins. After winning the bet he placed on himself when he transferred to Tennessee, Hooker wants to make sure he builds on that success.

Advertisement

His head coach believes that’s exactly what will happen.

“He’s a much better player today than he was at the end of the year,” Heupel said. “And he grew every week during the course of the season. His best football is still coming.”

(Top photo: John Amis / Associated Press)

ncG1vNJzZmismJqutbTLnquim16YvK57kmtuamtkbHxzfJFrZmlsX2eDcLPErWSuqF2dsq%2BwzqdkrZ2eo7K0v8SeZK2npZy1brPUsmShp5%2BgsrN50q2Yp5yjYrGmuMivnKurXZe%2FqrrGrGSjp6liwbB51aijrqakmrKzv44%3D