When Tennessee announced that Hendon Hooker has suffered a torn ACL against South Carolina, fans from everywhere offered support and prayers for the signal caller.
Hooker’s career has been a roller coaster, but he cemented himself as one of the best to wear the Orange and White.
Joe Milton III will replace Hooker under center, but it is unclear who will replace Hooker as the voice of the team.
“He’s a good man on and off the field,” linebacker Aaron Beasley said on Monday. “I feel like a lot of times y’all only see what he does on Saturdays, but everyday man, Hook, he’s the same guy, comes in, motivates us, leads us, was really that guy for us that we leaned on heavily. Just seeing him go down, I know he’s been through a lot throughout his whole college career. I just hate to see him go out like that, but you know we here for him. We love him and hope the best for him in the future.”
Hooker has torched opposing defenses on the field, and he’s been a leader off the field. It makes sense why players, even those on opposing teams, hate to see the quarterback go down.
Especially in a time of rumored locker room turmoil, Tennessee will need leadership more than ever.
“We just got to come together as a team,” Beasley said. “Really love on each, encourage each other, not really worry about what happened last week. Just come together because, at the end of the day, we’re all we got.”
With Hooker out, Milton now assumes the responsibility of running Tennessee’s offense. Milton possesses more arm strength than Hooker, but he often lacked the ball security Hooker had.
Head coach Josh Heupel has talked about Milton’s growth. Fans will get to see on Saturday how much he has actually grown.
“(Joe’s) a hard worker too, no different than Hendon,” Beasley said. “Him and Hendon were pretty tight in the quarterback room, so I feel like it won’t be too much of a drop-off. I feel like he’s learned a lot from Hendon and he’s a good leader even with Hendon on the field. So I feel like he’s going to come ready to work and he’s going to lead us.”
