I have been a severe critic of Hendon Hooker the last couple of years. Today he proved me wrong. It wasn't that he had amazing stats. He didn't. He did well. What Hooker did was show his teammates that he could play within the bounds of what he is CURRENTLY capable of and not put them in a bad position. He provided cool, calm and poised leadership. Hooker made the entire team better.
With Hooker at QB the line blocked longer, the backs ran harder and the defense stood taller. He demonstrated the intangibles of leadership in that the entire team rallied behind him.
This is Hookers team.
Go Hokies!
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Leg for honesty
Now on to important matters at hand...here's your plate, Sir.
I found Fuente's TKP account...
/s
Was it that obvious?
In all seriousness though, I find it hard to understand how you can be a critic of someone you have such a limited sample of. He's barely been given any opportunity. And especially has not been given much of the playbook to work with...
Because at the same timeframe in Josh Jackson's career he was starting for VT and running the entire offense, and no one is going to argue that Jackson was a stellar QB. It looked like Hooker was not picking up the system quickly enough. To some extent, you trust the coaching staff to evaluate players in practice and make the right decision for the team.
So, in all seriousness, Hooker being a 4 star recruit having only thrown 2 passes up to this point in his career looked bad. Prior to today, you have to wonder if he was a recruiting miss or if this is a developmental failure on the part of the coaching staff.
Honestly, even looking at today you have to wonder if HH is a developmental failure...but I think his issues can be solved with more games. He's got a cannon, and because of that overthrew almost every pass he made. He can run, but runs a bit too early after checking a single read.
That said, when he overthrows, players seemed to be putting in extra effort to make the play work and catch the ball. When he runs, people seemed to be willing to actually block and make things happen.
I think his passing issues could be worked out over the next couple of games (esp if you just gave him an all passing book for RI next week - we hammered the run for ODU and Furman, let HH ball out and just throw against RI next week to let him adjust to live action college ball as well as just getting comfortable with the offense).
To amend my original complaint, when HH runs after the single read, he shows a spark that reminds me of Evans in 2016 - makes people miss, quick on his feet, and gets the defense guessing. I think if HH gets more focused play time, he'd be a great QB.
With all of this in mind, we obv start Willis next week.
I thought over throwing was generally considered a nerves issue which usually improves with experience. I think Hooker can be pretty good with some experience. It's too early to say if there has been a developmental failure. Yeah, I'd hoped he'd been a little further along but he still has two years of eligibility left after this year so there's time.
Hookers passing accuracy improved as the game progressed. Definitely nerves for the first half or so where every down field pass was long. His accuracy was much better later.
As others have said, what a difference when a guy that can run is the QB.
Man did the team (congrats to them) and Hokie Nation need this.
Selhini began on TKP a month or two before Fuente "officially" named head coach. The timeline checks out.
Hooker can boogie. And wherever Hooker looked, the defense went there. He stared down the right side of the field, and there goes Dalton running free to the left.
Why didn't that work for Willis? Because THE DEFENSE DOESN'T RESPECT HIS WHEELS.
...and THAT was the difference.
I am pretty sure the defense went to exactly where Willis looked. That's how they knew where the ball was going.
That play worked at least twice. One TD and again to setup the McClease TD.
Hooker is not an elite QB. However, he may just be the QB our offense needs to not completely suck right now.
Willis might have looked good in practice but it didn't translate to gameday; Hooker might look shabby in practice but maybe he shines when the lights come on. We have the rest of the season to find out for sure. I say he handled his first start like a seasoned veteran.
He looked very good.
Threw it away when necessary. Hit the check-downs when necessary. And, I think this is really big, handed off quickly enough to give the backs a chance at hitting the holes while they were still open. That means we either ditched the reads on running plays or he's making them WAY faster than Willis. I could see us ditching them because we don't have to "fool" the defense into thinking he's a running a threat by pretending every run is a read. They know he's a running threat and they have to account for him.
The better practice player thing is a stupid way to judge someone's talent. People learn from mistakes and if there is a time from making mistakes it's in practice.
Also practice is easy. Take me playing golfer
Driving range::
Bystander: Wow did you just hit that in the woods?
Me: Yup, I got a hold of it
Bystander: You out drove the driving range! That must have been atleast 300 yards, perfectly straight!
Me: sure
Bystander: We got to get you on the course
Me: um ok
First hole:
Bystander: Wow did you just hit that in the woods?
Me: Yup, I got a hold of it
Bystander: but the woods arent even in play on this hole, you cleared another fairway, and a road.
Me: Yup, I got a hold of it
So...what are you saying? Coaches shouldn't make depth chart decisions based on practice performance?
No, but from a QB prospective let's take Patrick Mahomes. Last year in a preseason game he threw 4 INTs. Also there was a ton of talk about how many ints he was throwing in practice.
He starts the entire season and has one of the best seasons ever at the position.
QB is a different animal. They need to be able to test their boundaries and the limit of their arms. They also need to choose when they can take risks as well, because they can't play it safe all the time.
It's probably the hardest position to judge from just a practice standpoint.
Seems to me that Willis has the stronger arm, but Hooker has the stronger judgment, and our offense needs the credible threat of a QB run to keep the defense honest.
All aboard the Hooker train.
All of that said, Hooker will need to throw more, and we're still going to need a defense. The turnover ratio was forever in our favor, and we STILL barely won that game.
Hooker has the stronger arm, Willis has the better arm (right now), but Hooker has both the better football mind and the better feet. Hooker is the better QB for this offense, and it is not even close!
Agree that Hooker will have to throw more to win and that we cannot afford 3-and-outs. Still have to shorten the game, keep defense off the field, and be extra good on 3rd down.
Hooker is quoted as wishing he had the arm strength Willis has. But it is strong enough.
Hooker has great quickness!! His first step out of the pocket is QUICK!
My observation was HH has accuracy issues but the decision making seemed sound. That is, it seemed like he knew what throws he could and couldn't make and reacted well under pressure. His running skills forced the defense to respect the run game more, which opened things up a little more. Overall very happy with how he played and I am still managing my expectations.
Better accuracy will come with confidence. He BARELY missed Hazelton for a TD but also made the best pass all season to him late in the fourth. Receivers had a couple drops as well. I think the more confident Hooker becomes he will be much more dangerous as a dual threat.