Tennessee’s Hendon Hooker named Manning Award Quarterback of the Week

NEW ORLEANS – Hendon Hooker, a senior from the University of Tennessee, has been selected as the Manning Award Quarterback of the Week. He earns the honor over seven other Manning Award Stars of the Week in the Allstate Sugar Bowl’s Facebook contest.

Facebook Voting

Hooker completed 22-of-28 passes for 349 yards and a pair of touchdowns as Tennessee improved to 4-0 for the first time since 2016 with a 38-33 victory over rival Florida in a critical SEC East showdown. He also added 112 rushing yards and another touchdown as he set his career-high with 461 total yards.

In addition to the Manning Star honor, Hooker was also Walter Camp National Offensive Player of the Week, the SEC Offensive Player of the Week and the Reese’s Senior Bowl Offensive Player of the Week.

The Vols are off this week; they return to action Saturday, October 8 with a trip to Baton Rouge to take on the LSU Tigers. Kickoff is scheduled for 11 a.m. Central on ESPN.

College football fans turned out in force for this week’s voting with over 15,000 voting. While the Volunteer fans gave Hooker the win, strong competition was provided by the fans of Texas Tech quarterback Donovan Smith and Adrian Martinez from Kansas State. Smith connected on a game-tying 19-yard TD midway through the fourth quarter, then set up a critical field goal in the final minute of regulation before directing the Red Raiders into position for the game-winning field goal in overtime of a thrilling 37-34 upset of Big 12 rival Texas. He completed 38-of-56 passes for 331 yards and a pair of TDs. Martinez was devastating in the run game, scurrying for 148 yards and four touchdowns as the Wildcats shocked No. 6 Oklahoma, 41-34, in a Big 12 road game. He tallied two of his rushing TDs in the fourth quarter including the game-clinching burst with 1:58 to go.

While the Manning Award selected 30 quarterbacks for its preseason Watch List, additional quarterbacks are expected to be added to the Watch List later in the season. 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.