The awards and recognitions for Tennessee quarterback Hendon Hooker continue to roll in after the conclusion of the regular season.
The second-year Tennessee quarterback has already been named a Walter Camp Player of the Year finalist, USA Today Sports’ SEC Player of the Year, and a Maxwell Award finalist. Hooker is now adding one more prestigious recognition to his collection.
On Friday afternoon, Hendon Hooker was named one of the 11 finalists for the Manning Award.
The Manning Award is annually given to the top quarterback in college football. The unfortunate aspect of the award, though, is that the winner will be announced following the conclusion of college football’s postseason games, thus taking a quarterback’s performance in the bowl game into consideration.
Nonetheless, while Hooker won’t be participating in Tennessee’s New Year’s Six game, the Tennessee quarterback has already left his mark on the college football world.
VFL Peyton Manning: The Sheriff Dances to Rocky Top With Viral Clogging Sensation Zeb Ross at Country Music Awards
Hooker spent the majority of the season near or at the top of Heisman lists across the country. From a team perspective, Hooker led Tennessee to five ranked wins this season, including two road games and four ranked SEC games. Hooker also led the Volunteers to its first 10-win season since 2006 en route to an NY6 bowl game during the 2022 season.
Heisman Front Runners pic.twitter.com/NykjxGIeVy
— Robert Griffin III (@RGIII) November 3, 2022
From an individual perspective, Hooker closes the 2022 season as the SEC’s back-to-back highest-rated quarterback in the conference. Hooker ended his season with the third-most passing yards among SEC quarterbacks and the highest completion percentage as well.
Hooker ended his final season in Knoxville with 3,135 passing yards, 27 touchdown passes, five rushing touchdowns, and only two interceptions. That brings his Tennessee career numbers up to 6,080 passing yards, 68.8 completion percentage, 58 passing touchdowns, 10 rushing touchdowns, and five interceptions.
“Hendon epitomizes toughness, grit, leadership, winning traits,” Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel said about his starting quarterback, knowing a thing or two about high-level college quarterbacks as a Heisman runner-up himself.
“The guy works endlessly, every single day, at his craft. Almost being like a full-time coach as far as the amount of time he spends in our offices. And at the same time, when he is with his teammates, driving them to be their absolute best and to climb every single day for our program to be its best.”
Hendon Hooker is Tennessee’s first Manning Award finalist in program history.
The 11 Manning Award finalists are as follows:
- Hendon Hooker, Tennessee
- Stetson Bennett, Georgia
- Max Duggan, TCU
- Sam Hartman, Wake Forest
- Drake Maye, North Carolina
- Bo Nix, Oregon
- Michael Penix Jr., Washington
- Will Rogers, Mississippi State
- C.J. Stroud, Ohio State
- Caleb Williams, Southern California
- Bryce Young, Alabama
