Hendon Hooker is chasing Tennessee football records.

It was a big day for the Tennessee football starting signal-caller. Hendon Hooker completed 14-of-18 passes for 298 yards and two touchdowns while running it twice for 24 yards with no turnovers.

Hooker did miss a touchdown pass to Cedric Tillman, one he should have made, but he still made so many other good plays for the Vols. In the process, he began climbing up the record books for Rocky Top.

With his two touchdown passes, Hooker took sole possession of seventh all-time on the Vols’ career list with 37 scoring strikes. He entered the game behind Andy Kelly, Heath Shuler and Jonathan Crompton, all of whom were tied with 36 touchdowns.

Also, this was Hooke’s 15th straight game with a touchdown pass. He is now three games behind Shuler for that record, and since he’s thrown one every game he’s started, it’s likely he’ll break that.

Breakout games for Jalin Hyatt, Dylan Sampson and Jaylen Wright

We’ve been hearing all offseason about the potential of Jalin Hyatt. Jaylen Wright gave us a tease of what he could do last year. Dylan Sampson emerged in fall camp. All three stood out for Tennessee football in this one.

Hyatt had five catches for 166 yards and two touchdowns. It was easily his best performance, and after showing flashes the first two games, he put it all together here.

Wright had 23 carries for 96 yards and two touchdowns. Most importantly, he didn’t fumble the ball, a huge improvement from what he’s done the previous two weeks.

Finally, Sampson also emerged, as he had eight carries for 57 yards and two touchdowns. All of these players racked up scores when it was still a game.

Injuries piled up, becoming a concern.

All of them seemed mild, but Tennessee football did suffer quite a few injuries in this game. They helped explain why Hyatt, Wright and Sampson broke out.

It started with Jabari Small getting banged up on the second play of the game. That put more pressure on Wright and Sampson to stand out.

Then, Cedric Tillman got banged up early. That put more pressure on Hyatt to stand out. Finally, Tyler Baron went down with an injury.

Now, none of these seemed serious, and Josh Heupel didn’t seem concerned about Tillman and Small at halftime, but it’s still an issue. The last thing the Vols need is to be hurt ahead of their matchup with the Florida Gators.

Pass defense is still an issue.

You can tout Tennessee football’s defense for once again playing bend but don’t break. They didn’t allow a touchdown, and they forced a red zone turnover. It actually should have been two, as Kamal Hadden had an interception that wasn’t counted.

Still, the pass defense was a problem, particularly, once again, the intermediate pass defense. UT allowed D.J. Irons to complete 32 of 44 passes for 241 yards.

Those are solid numbers, and despite five and a half yards an attempt, there were no turnovers. Sure, the Vols can get away with that against Akron. They won’t get away with that in SEC play.

Joe Milton III once again shows his development.

Maybe he really did get better in the offseason. For the second time in three weeks, Joe Milton III put up some solid stats by doing exactly what he couldn’t do last year.

Milton, in mop-up-duty, was 4-of-5 for 112 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions. However, it wasn’t the numbers with the game in hand that stood out.

The reality is, Milton had two nice completions. He threw a beautiful 57-yard touchdown pass to Ramel Keyton, and then he hit Walker Merrill for a 38-yard strike.

Sure, Tayven Jackson completed both of his pass attempts and had a touchdown drive, so everybody was scoring. For Milton, though, it was the accuracy that stood out.

That’s a huge deal for Tennessee football going forward, and it could do them a lot of favors next year or if Hooker gets hurt this year. He clearly developed.