Roanoke Times interviewed Hooker's father. Here is his explanation for what happened.
https://roanoke.com/sports/college/va_tech/we-feel-confident-hes-fully-r...
His father said that Hooker's spasms were a response to the cold, and that he had similar issues during a game.
This also grabbed my attention regarding Hooker's first fumble:
""He saw the corner was 12 yards off his receiver and he wanted to hurry up and get his hands on the ball," Alan Hooker said,with a chuckle. "He took his eyes off the ball, that's all that was. We had talked during the week, 'Dad, we have some opportunities where coaches allow me some freedom where I see that guy is off I can get it to him right now. We can make plays.' Most teams have played Virginia Tech's receivers press-man and made it tough for them to get off the ball and get separation...He just took his eyes off it."
Comments
That actually makes me feel a LOT better.
Hurt to watch him like that. Need to have a big overcoat out there for him. A giant heater if he needs it.
There's no need for him be convulsing.
We'll be needing him to be in peak form next week.
And keep him on the stationary bike between series.
I suspected a nervous breakdown. Glad I was wrong.
I'm thinking Sickle Cell anemia. Cold intolerance is one of the symptoms of anemia and can precipitate a Sickle Cell crisis. Plus, as I recall his dad remarked back in the summer that Hendon had experienced a health issue that was life threatening.
Glad to hear.
Honestly, one of the main reasons I kept the game on for much of the fourth quarter was looking for an update on Hooker.
Too bad Maria Taylor was in the bathroom or something the whole second half
The one time she could be useful - rather than adding no insight whatsoever while talking over a play - and she's awol.
Hookers need to be warm and wet, not cold and achy
First off, glad he is apparently healthy.
But still just can't quite wrap my head around all this..it just seems so bizarre that we can't even handle such basic things anymore.
It was obviously going to be cold, its December in the Mountains. Isn't this what pregame is for? If you're cold during pregame..put on some extra layers...
Hands are cold and making it hard to grip the ball? Put a glove on at least your non-throwing hand.
Cold on the sideline? Have coats and/or heaters available.
Look, it was 30° last night, not -50°, it shouldn't have taken extraordinary efforts to keep the players warm enough to be reasonably comfortable.
This is pretty simple stuff here, if you can't accomplish this, how do you think you are going to win a football game?
I agree. Hooker may have been cold, but that was not a typical reaction. And whatever it was persisted enough for him to not return to the game? Something seems off. I just hope he is healthy.
Agreed, this makes me feel a little better, but something still seems off to me.
It sounds way off.
Weren't there rumors of a career ending injury at the beginning of the season? Could this be related at all?
*Medical condition
It was clear from the way he coached the game that Fuente didn't think he could win the game
I'm very glad to hear Hooker is OK, but also so very confused.
At this point, it is probably best to wish him good health, and not speculate any more. He has a right to his medical privacy if there is an issue. And if there isn't, it was scary enough that he probably doesn't want to relive it.
As someone who has cold related health problems (and now lives in Wisconsin 😬) I feel for him. My stuff hits under 60 degrees, but I don't have to play football, so I can usually handle it.
Keep 'er movin'.
It wouldn't surprise me if part of his lung injury at the beginning of the year led to some form of vascular damage, that could cause him to have poor thermal regulation, particularly in his extremities.
Not to be a jerk, but this doesn't make any sense at all physiologically.
We really don't have any insight into what was the nature of HH's health issue earlier in the year (and he is certainly deserving of all the privacy he desires to have). Given that, trying to make some conclusion about what happened or didn't happen based on what we saw on a TV screen is speculation upon speculation and isn't fair.
He says he is healthy as does his father, so I would take their word for it.
I though he may have been having an exercise-induced asthma attack after running the field after the Clemson player.
glad to hear he's ok, but I'm still concerned. Given the number of concerned posts we saw this does not sound like the human body's normal response to being cold, especially after sprinting 60+ yards and I would think that generated a bit of body heat. Hope he's alright...
I mean, you can get sweaty from exercising, then sitting still when it's cold, the sweat, designed to cool you, is doing you no favors when it's that cold. But as I and others have pointed out, where was the coat for him, why didn't he go stand by a heater, or do something else to warm up? If they didn't have coats, why tf not?
the equipment manager needs to be dusting off their resume.... no excuse to not be prepared... we had a damn bomb cyclone hit the state, and there's no jacket around for anyone? Pack your bags!
Fuente's post-game remarks regarding Hooker/ "QB situation" were disgusting. He basically insinuated that there was a possibility HH quit on the team and might not be back. Those statements were unbelievable by a HC. I don't care if he thought that was the case or even knew at that point that HH likely was calling it, the coach does not say anything like that about one of their players to the media, especially following another huge embarrassingly program low point.
If Fu wanted to be outright honest and transparent, he should have went and checked on HH before the presser. Maybe he should have done that anyway since his starting QB was apparently in distress. Or, if not aware and/or don't have the time after the game, ask the damn doctors how he is doing. How long does that take, maybe 30 secs to a minute. You can't make Bitter, Wood, etc. wait an extra minute on a damn Zoom call.
There is no excuse to throw HH under the bus the way he did. If you don't know his status, shut up and don't say anything about it, and especially don't include it in your opening remarks. I watched and re-listened to his comments several times and each time it solidified my impression of what was said.
I use to think, well, Fu, is a bit awkward, can't coach that well, but he seems like a decent guy trying to the right thing. Well, in that moment he was not and I no longer think that overall. What I saw post-game was a coach who was nervous, out of his realm, unable to find the right path forward, scrambling for excuses, and willing pin point some of the blame on his starting QB.
"I asked...and they said he was cold." pause. "I have never seen or heard anything like that before...Guys, I don't know what that means for next week." F YOU FU! If you wanted to say anything at all: O, HH wasn't feeling well so we went to Knox.
So you and I interpreted two sentences by Fuente in completely different ways.
Congratulations. Thanks for the GIF.
Fine. I'll bite. How in the hell can you infer that coach is insinuating that Hooker quit on the team when he literally said ""I have never seen or heard anything like that before...Guys, I don't know what that means for next week." ?
I'm not a fan of Fuente either and I think he needs to go before he does any more damage to the program, but putting words in his mouth like this to paint a narrative that only exists in your head is a terrible take.
Saying a college football player did not come back b/c he was only cold and leaving it at that (without seeking any additional information beforehand) with stupid shrugging, flabbergasted demeanor is calling the guy a pus and a quitter. And then piling it on with I have never seen or heard anything.... Give me a break.
If I was HH, I would be pissed, but I guess you would love a coach to say those things about you. Yeah, he shit the bed on the count on the first series, fumbled a bunch and then got cold during the game so he didn't come back. If you are going to say that crap, at least add some comments like, yeah, you know he had some stuff at the beginning of the year and has been beat up a bit, so it has been tough for HH and the team. Support your player, generalize it with coach speak, don't crap on him. Find excuses for your players and not yourself.
It is the whole context of his opening remarks, body language, and tone. Not just those statements, but all those before and after. Biting? lol
Watched the same press conference. Didn't have that interpretation at all. He was told by the training / medical staff that Hooker was "cold". He said he wasn't sure what going on and held him out of the game. His comment regarding next week wasn't that Hooker "quit" on this team, rather he wasn't sure if he was going to be medically cleared to play.
My interpretation is that he's a football coach and not a doctor and would defer judgment to the people who actually know what they're talking about.
I think you need to take a moment and unbias yourself. This the same coach who held out Hooker for the first few games of the season because he had an undisclosed medical condition and didn't want to risk his health. One of the positives about Fuente is that he really, really cares about his players.
Quite honestly - this is an absolutely ludicrous and illogical take.
Yeah let's not let our frustration with Fuente get nasty. I think Fuente is one of those people who may suck emoting themselves but still shows he's willing to do the right thing with his actions.
Ludicrous crap, even?
There was no mention of Fu deciding himself to hold HH based on what the trainer said. He said he was cold. That is it. It was HH's decision not to return b/c he was cold.
So, we are countering this argument too with that this staff cares about it players when they repeatedly play them injured and reinjuries occur.
Stop. You'll get your divorce eventually. Your bias is absolutely causing you to interpret things to match your hatred.
i'd like to see a change at HC too but a whole big oof on this take. you're just looking for reasons to dump on the guy
This take blows French's hatred of cheese out of the water. I dislike Fuente as much as anyone and I didn't read it like that. I don't know anyone apart from you that did.
Should Fuente have known more about the situation before he sat in front of a microphone? Absolutely.
Do I think he threw HH under the bus or insinuated he thought HH uncommitted? Not at all.
I will say this though...as someone who's been a cold-weather casualty, that ain't nothing to fuck with.
I'll defer to the actual HCPs who are on TKP but it seemed like Hooker had a hypothermic episode. Not shocked that Fuente (or any other "normal" person that doesn't work in healthcare) would have the jargon to adequately expressed that. If I didn't work in healthcare, I probably would have said the same thing he did.
I can see your point, but I believe the attempt to explain it, even if he failed, would have spoken volumes.
I think you mean hypothermic.
I see it now. 😊