Hendon Hooker misses Heisman finalist cut

Dec 6, 2022 - 12:25 AM

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We all knew it was coming, but that won’t stop us from being mad about it all over again. Hendon Hooker was not invited to New York City for the Heisman presentation, meaning he is not a finalist for the prestigious award.

Hooker was second in the Heisman odds going into the South Carolina game, where Tennessee lost and Hooker ended up tearing his ACL. He ended up missing one single game, and now he doesn’t even get to make the trip?

Ridiculous — especially in such a weak year for the award.

USC’s Caleb Williams, Georgia’s Stetson Bennett, TCU’s Max Duggan and Ohio State’s CJ Stroud are the final four. There’s absolutely no way the four of them deserve to go and Hooker doesn’t. No way.

Hooker led Tennessee to a 10-2 record, helping to push Tennessee to the No. 1 spot in the College Football Playoff rankings for the very first time. The Volunteers were in the race all season long until late November. Now we’re saying a single bad night and an injury keeps Hooker from even making the trip to the ceremony? Not that we expected anything different.

The Heisman voting remains flawed. Three of the final four quarterbacks in the playoff are finalists for the award. Shouldn’t we try a little harder here? I mean, Stetson Bennett? No disrespect to the mailman, but put anyone under center for Georgia and they win double digit games. Did Bennett really make as much of a difference as Hooker did? No chance.

We’re not arguing for Hooker to win the award, but yeah, Hooker not getting an invite is downright disrespectful.