Hendon Hooker racks up the weekly awards following lights out performance against Florida

Sep 27, 2022 - 12:36 PM

Tennessee fans knew all about Hendon Hooker entering the year. SEC fans had a pretty good idea. But on Saturday on another national stage, the rest of the country got to figure out what we already knew.

Hendon Hooker was simply brilliant on Saturday afternoon. He got whatever he wanted against the Gators, leading Tennessee to their first win over Florida since the 2016 season. Following his efforts, Hooker was named the SEC Offensive Player of the Week. He was also named the National Player of the Week by the Walter Camp Football Foundation.

Hooker threw for 349 yards and two scores, completing 22 of 28 attempts. He ran for another 112 on the ground, completely changing the game with his legs. Hooker scored another touchdown on the ground.

Hooker became the second quarterback in Tennessee history to throw for 300 and run for 100 in a single game, joining Josh Dobbs. He also extended his school-record streak of 212 pass attempts without throwing an interception.

It’s worth noting that he did all of this without Cedric Tillman, too.

The Heisman chatter has grown to a simmer now, as the national media has begun to clue into how good this guy really is. Hooker’s efficiency and total grasp of this offense makes everything tick for Josh Heupel, and Tennessee is in a spot where they’ve got a real chance to make some big time noise down the stretch. 4-0 already and now ranked 8th in the country, Tennessee has a bye week to rest up before travelling to LSU. Then it’ll be Alabama week. Plenty of work to be done here, but Hooker has the Volunteers in position a third of the way into the season.