Quarterback Hendon Hooker returning to Tennessee is one of the biggest reasons as to why most are optimistic about the upcoming Tennessee football season.
Hooker transferred to Tennessee before the 2021 football season after three years with Virginia Tech and helped turn around Tennessee’s direction after a lackluster 2020 showing under Jeremy Pruitt. Combined with the new direction of the program and the change in leadership, Hooker was one of the foundational pieces for the Vols last year.
With spring camps now in the rearview mirror and summer on the horizon, ESPN’s David M. Hale has gone through the college football landscape and categorized the quarterback situations at each school into a 24-tier model from “Heisman or Bust” to “See, We Told You It Could Be Worse.”
The Top 10 tiers are as follows:
- Heisman or Bust
- The Heisman Waiting Room
- 2.A.: What’s a Guy Got to Do to Get Some Heisman Love Around Here?
- Pretty… Pretty Good
- Definitely. Probably. Maybe.
- So Hot Right Now
- Just Stay Healthy
- You Might Not Have Noticed, But They’re Pretty Good
- Best From Outside the Power 5
- Veterans with Moxie
- Big-Time QB Battles
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Entering his second and final season at Tennessee, Vols quarterback Hendon Hooker is ranked in Tier 3: Pretty… Pretty Good. In addition, there are seven players in Tiers 1 and 2 above Hooker’s group.
“Hooker was all but pushed out the door at Virginia Tech after a disappointing 2020, only to find the ideal fit in Josh Heupel’s offense at Tennessee,” Hale wrote. “Hooker, [Malik] Cunningham, and [CJ] Stroud were the only Power 5 QBs last year to total 3,500 yards and 35 TDs with fewer than 10 turnovers.”
Tennessee’s Hendon Hooker is also sitting with two SEC quarterbacks in front of him and two on the same tier with him. Alabama’s returning Heisman winning quarterback Bryce Young is in Tier 1, while Georgia’s Stetson Bennett was created his own tier in “2a: What’s a Guy Got to Do to Get Some Heisman Love Around Here?”
Then comes Mississippi State’s Will Rogers and Arkansas’ KJ Jefferson on Tier 3 alongside Hooker.
A considerable amount of the optimism behind Tennessee football heading into the 2022 season is because of what Hooker was able to do last season. While Tennessee was just unveiling the Heupel offense to the SEC, Hooker was magnificent in orchestrating the up-tempo, fast-paced offense that Tennessee was so known for by the end of the year. Hooker’s impressive decision-making and ability to extend plays using his feet routinely made him the ideal fit for Heupel and Alex Golesh’s offense.
“In terms of input in the offense, [Hooker] now has a really good understanding of it,” Tennessee offensive coordinator Alex Golesh said during spring camp. “He’ll speak up. He’s not a big ask-you-for-things, more tell you what he doesn’t want. Same input he had a year ago, if there’s something he doesn’t like we won’t do it. Obviously, it’s all about him being comfortable back there.”
In just one season working at Tennessee, Hooker ended the year with the SEC’s No. 1 ranking in Quarterback Rating (QBR), the fourth-most passing yards, and the second-highest completion percentage among all-conference quarterbacks.
Two SEC foes, one newcomer and one returning starter, land in Tier 4: South Carolina transfer quarterback Spencer Rattler and Kentucky quarterback Will Levis.
Check out ESPN’s full college football quarterback tier rankings here.
