The narrative on Hendon Hooker has changed – a lot.
Just a year ago, Hooker was an unproven quarterback that was readying himself to start his final season in college. Just a few months ago, Hooker was a quarterback with accuracy issues. Now, Hooker is a former Tennessee Vol who is drawing rave reviews from NFL analysts. Some even believe Hooker could be one of the top five picks in the upcoming NFL Draft in April.
Hooker is still limited in what he can do physically after suffering a torn ACL in the South Carolina game last season. However, he’s been able to meet with NFL teams at the Senior Bowl, the NFL Combine and at Tennessee’s Pro Day last week. Hooker’s knee will hopefully be 100-percent by the upcoming football season. For now, scouts are picking his brain. That’s no challenge for Hooker.
“Honestly, I feel like that’s the bottom line of being a big-time quarterback, being a quarterback in general or a big-time ballplayer,” Hooker said. “Being able to showcase what you know on the (dry-erase) board should come naturally because that’s what you do. This is what we do on a daily basis.
“I’ve said many times this whole draft-prep season that I spent a lot of time in front of the mirror drawing. Any time I walk past a mirror and there’s a marker, I’m going to draw on the mirror. That’s just something I enjoy doing because I love the game of football.”
Hooker has heard the questions that he’s just a product of Tennessee’s system, that plenty of quarterbacks could put up big numbers in coach Josh Heupel’s system. It’s easy, right? Heupel doesn’t see it that way.
“I’m not sure anybody in college football has more on their plate than Hendon does,” Heupel said on Thursday. “Then, you throw in the tempo that we play at, you have got to be a quick decision maker, you have got to recognize defensive structure extremely quickly.
“He controls some of our run game. He controls the RPO (run-pass option) game, making a decision on every snap. He’s got loaded box checks. He’s got alerts. He’s got kills. He controlled the entire game on every single play. I think that puts him in a great position to be able to transition at the next level and handle all that’s coming at him and be able to handle it at a very high level.”
Then, there’s that leadership thing. Ask any player from last season’s team and they’ll quickly tell you that Hooker was as responsible for Tennessee’s resurgence as any player in the program.
“I’ve never been around anybody that’s been a stronger or more impactful leader than Hendon Hooker is,” Heupel said. “Our program is not where it’s at today unless Hendon is a part of our locker room. He’s smart, he cares, he loves his teammates. You feel his energy every single day when he walks into the building and out on the practice field.
“He’s a fierce competitor, somebody that our guys fed off of. That’s when things were going great and when things maybe weren’t going great. He’s been dynamic for us and he’ll be the same guy. That’s true to his character, true to who he is. That’s the same guy that some NFL franchise is going to get.”
When asked about talking to NFL teams, Hooker said, “The biggest thing is talking about protections, talking about what I do at the line of scrimmage and how much control I have. When I explain what my process is and the different things I do at the line of scrimmage to take control of the offense and making sure that we’re getting what we need to get out of the play. That has been cool. Now we get to see the backstory on why we’re doing things and how it’s being done, to get the success that we’re getting.”
NFL scouts have noticed. Tennessee Titans head coach Mike Vrabel was at the Vols’ Pro Day on Thursday. So much has gone right for Hooker, is it too much for Tennessee football fans to hope that he stays close to home and plays in Nashville? Nah.
For the record, the Titans have the 11th pick in the upcoming draft. They could use an upgrade at quarterback. It’s crazy to think about it, but Hooker might not be available.
