Tennessee’s Hendon Hooker earns fourth Manning Award Quarterback of the Week

NEW ORLEANS (November 17, 2022) – Tennessee star Hendon Hooker is continuing his exceptional season and he’s also continuing to dominate the Allstate Sugar Bowl’s Manning Award Quarterback of the Week voting as the Volunteer fans have handed him his fourth honor of the season. He is the first four-time winner in a season since Oklahoma’s Baker Mayfield accomplished the feat in 2017. He earned the honor over seven other Manning Award Stars of the Week in the Allstate Sugar Bowl’s Facebook contest.

Facebook Voting

This past weekend, Hooker led the Volunteers to three straight touchdowns to close the third quarter and break open a tight game in a 66-24 SEC win over Missouri. He completed 25-of-35 passes for 355 yards and three touchdowns while also rushing for 50 yards and a score.

The sixth-year senior has captained the Vols to wins over five AP Top 25 opponents this season, tied for the most of any team in the nation and the most ever for UT over the course of a regular season. In just 23 games played at Tennessee, Hooker has made his way up the Volunteer career charts. The signal caller ranks fifth in UT history with 55 passing touchdowns, sixth with 6,854 total yards and ninth with 5,833 passing yards over his past two seasons on Rocky Top. He owns school records for consecutive attempts without an interception (261) and consecutive games with a touchdown pass (20).

Yesterday, he was named one of 20 semifinalists for the sixth annual Jason Witten Collegiate Man of the Year and one of of 22 semifinalists for the 2022 Walter Camp Player of the Year award.

Fifth-ranked Tennessee returns to action at South Carolina on Saturday at 6 p.m. CT on ESPN.

Hooker’s closest competition in this week’s Facebook voting contest came from West Virginia’s Garrett Greene and Mike Wright of Vanderbilt. Greene, who entered the game late in the first half, completed 12-of-22 passes for 138 yards and one touchdown. He also rushed for 119 yards and a pair of touchdowns, including an 11-yard fourth-quarter run, and directed a 15-play, 65-yard drive for the game-winning field goal as time ran out in the Mountaineers’ 23-20 Big 12 win over Oklahoma – their first win over the Sooners since joining the Big 12.

Wright completed 12-of-23 passes for 184 yards and one touchdown, while also rushing for 126 yards and a touchdown. He connected on an 8-yard TD pass with 32 seconds to go to cap a 12-play, 80-yard drive and lift the Commodores to a 24-21 SEC road upset of No. 24 Kentucky.

While the Manning Award selected 30 quarterbacks for its preseason Watch List and then made 12 midseason additions in October, all quarterbacks remain eligible for the honor. Ten finalists will be selected and the winner is scheduled to be announced following the College Football Playoff National Championship.

In its first 18 years, the Manning Award has recognized the top names in college football. It has honored quarterbacks from 13 different schools and from four different conferences. The Southeastern Conference (Bryce Young, Joe Burrow, Mac Jones, Johnny Manziel, Cam Newton, JaMarcus Russell and Tim Tebow) leads the way with seven Manning Award honorees, while the Big 12 Conference (Kyler Murray, Baker Mayfield, Vince Young, Colt McCoy and Robert Griffin III) has had five winners. The Atlantic Coast Conference (Deshaun Watson twice, Matt Ryan and Jameis Winston) has had four Manning Award winners. Alabama (B. Young and Jones) joins LSU (Burrow and Russell), Oklahoma (Murray and Mayfield) and Texas (McCoy and V. Young) as the only schools with two different winners.

All the Manning Award winners follow in the footsteps of the Mannings themselves. In college, Archie, Peyton and Eli Manning combined for over 25,000 passing yards and 201 touchdowns while playing in 10 bowl games and earning four bowl MVP awards. Archie was the No. 2 pick in the NFL Draft, while both Peyton and Eli were selected No. 1 overall.