Perhaps there were some who doubted all the offseason talk about Tennessee quarterback Hendon Hooker’s maturity. Those notions can be put to rest.
“Hendon is a completely different guy,” UT quarterbacks coach Joey Halzle said when asked to compare . “His confidence, his fundamentals, his development since that point, he’s a completely different quarterback. From mental side, physical side, the entire aspect of playing the position, and that’s why you’ve seen the success and the growth kind of using that game as a jumping up point from last year.”
That showed up in Tennessee’s 59-10 win over Ball State in the Vols’ season opener. Hooker completed 18-of-25 passes for 221 yards and two touchdowns in little more than half of the game against the Cardinals. However, based on Halzle’s comments on Tuesday, there’s much more that the Vols can do with Hooker at the helm.
“He’s at the point right now the way he’s playing, you got an open book with him, you feel comfortable,” Halzle said. “He’ll operate anything you put him out there (in), and the other thing is what we’ve talked about on his confidence side of it – he will now let us know, if he’s like ‘Hey, I’m not comfortable with that, I don’t like that’ – and we know if he’s saying that, it’s gone.
“He’s not just saying it because he’s uncomfortable or he’s worried about it. He’s like, ‘nah, I don’t like this, it doesn’t fit. I don’t like how it’s timing up.’ Cool, it’s out. So, we have that kind of bond and rapport now where we can call anything. He trusts us that what we’re putting in the game makes sense and then if it doesn’t work for either one, we can pull it.”
On his assessment of Joe Milton III’s performance vs. Ball State…
“He played extremely well. Hate to use the word flawless but he played at an extremely high level out there. It gave us a bunch of confidence. Today, with the transfer portal and all that, it’s hard to have two high-level quarterbacks and Joe showed us that we have two very good options at quarterback, and we have a ton of confidence playing him.”
On the mindset of being the backup quarterback…
“It’s a tough spot to be in because you have to prepare as the starter with a quarter of the reps that the starter is getting, as it should be. He’s the one that’s taking the field, he’s got to get the most. He’s (Milton) done a really good job of making sure that he is mentally focused every single time we take the field. He goes through his calls, he makes every call even when he is not in the game, so he’s really embraced that, OK, I understand because it happened to him the other way of how quickly this can switch, so he is always ready to go. That’s why I said on the front end, we feel confident rolling him. We do not have a separate (game plan), if Joe’s in, it’s this, if Hendon’s in, it’s this. If for whatever reason he’s in there, you’re calling it and you’re rolling. And that’s what he’s earned in the way he has prepared.”
On what impresses him most about Pitt’s defense…
“Extremely aggressive in the way that they play. They’re sound. They play within their scheme at a very high level, but within that they play extremely aggressively every single snap and extremely physical. You’re going to have to show up and take everything that you get with this one.”
On the importance of the run game when going against a physical and aggressive defense like Pitt…
“The way they’re designed is they’re designed to stop the run. That’s what they pride themselves on. With everything you do running the ball against them, they try to make it tough sledding. You can’t turn it into an air raid game and just drop back and throw it 50 times. But they are going to put everybody in the box and try to stuff the run game and force you to do it. So, we have to have a good scheme, and then really just, you’ve got to move bodies up front. It is what it is. It’s still what this game comes down to is blocking and tackling. (If) we do that at a high level, we should be successful.”
