University of Tennessee quarterback Hendon Hooker recently appeared at the 2022 SEC Football Media Days, where he discussed the upcoming season, how he plans to play this season, and how much of a blessing it is to play football.
Hooker would be asked about this season compared to last season, where he is now touted as one of the top quarterbacks in the country when he was previously fighting for the starting job last year.
He answered, “Honestly, I feel the exact same. I’m excited to play ball. It’s a blessing. It’s what I love to do. It’s my happy place. So, whenever I’m on the field, I take it and I run with it because it’s literally what I do. It’s my passion.”
“Anytime I’m around my teammates and I’m in the facility, it’s a blessing,” he continued. “And my attitude towards all the rest of the accolades is whatever. I’m gonna make plays and we’re gonna play ball. That’s what I’m here to do: win ball games. The accolades come later.”
Previously during the Q&A with the media Hooker answered a question about his ability to not only pass the ball, but also run it. He explained how he approaches it, “Honestly, I only want to run when I have to. I love getting the ball to my teammates and letting the playmakers be playmakers.”
“So really I’ll give everybody else the ball before I’ll run it,” he asserted. “Really whenever I need to or I’m in a position that the team wants me to then I’ll do whatever it takes to win.”
Hooker would later detail how he and Coach Josh Heupel are working to change the culture at Tennessee. He detailed, “Coach Hype, a real down-to-earth guy, loves the team, loves the staff. One thing that we try to do is build the best brotherhood in college football.”
“So day in and day out, Coach Hype is motivating us to lead from the players position and not letting the coaches take control of the team,” Hooker elaborated. “And really letting us have a voice. And that’s something that’s very special to me because I didn’t always have that.”
“So him encouraging me to speak up and be the leader that he knows I can be and instill the confidence in everyone else around me is a blessing,” he said.
Hooker would also detail how much fun he’s having saying, “It’s fun to watch. It’s fun to play in. It’s fast, upbeat. It increases your stamina of thinking. It kind of speeds up your thought process and makes you make fast decisions. A lot of repetition comes with that and a lot of classroom time, but just being a quarterback in this offense is special because you full control.”
“You see something you don’t like, you can make your audible call,” he elaborated. “You want to be protected, you can make your audible before your full slide or whatnot. You want to slide the protection…”
He concluded, “Really just being out there and being myself in that role is a blessing as well. So any quarterbacks that are in our system they have a great time running it and receivers love it too.”
Hooker started 13 games for the Volunteers last season where he had 206 completions on 303 attempts for 2,945 yards and 31 touchdowns with only 3 interceptions. On the ground he rushed for 616 yards on 166 attempts for an average of 3.7 yards per attempt. He scored 5 touchdowns on the ground as well.
Before joining the University of Tennessee, he played for Virginia Tech in 2019 and 2020 where he threw for 2,894 yards and scored 22 touchdowns and threw 7 interceptions. On the ground, he ran for 1,649 yards and scored 20 touchdowns.
Outside of football, Hooker is a children’s book author penning The ABC’s of Scripture for Athletes with his brother Alston Hooker. He also has companion flashcards to accompany the book.
What do you expect from Hendon Hooker and the University of Tennessee this year?
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