KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Tennessee quarterback Hendon Hooker has helped revive a program that was a has-been. Tennessee is now about what could be. And if Hooker leads the No. 1 Volunteers to their greatest win in 20 years Saturday in Athens, Ga., their fans’ dreams will run rampant.
Hooker is the unlikeliest engineer to the unlikely No. 1 team. His story is a conglomerate of clichés, possessing all the compelling qualities that drive society to sports. Just as the quarterback who will be on the opposite sideline Saturday, No. 3 Georgia’s Stetson Bennett, took a winding road to becoming a national champion, Hooker followed his own serpentine trail to Heisman Trophy favorite.
He was part of the 2017 recruiting class, a group that included quarterbacks Tua Tagovailoa, Jake Fromm, Kellen Mond and Sam Ehlinger. A Greensboro, N.C., native, Hooker wound up at Virginia Tech. He spent several seasons in Blacksburg, playing 18 games over the final two campaigns. The raw numbers weren’t bad — a 63.1% completion percentage and 22:7 touchdown-to-interception ratio — but the performance was unspectacular. Hooker, seeking a better nurturing environment, transferred after graduating in 2020.
