Story here. Don't think it been shared here yet? Anyway, it's a great read. My favorite excerpt:
thank you for taking the time to watch me play, and to have my back, and to welcome me into the Tennessee family with open arms.
This isn't where I started my football career — that's Virginia Tech, and I'll always have love for them.
And this isn't where I'm ending my football career — that's the NFL, I hope, and I can't wait to show them I'm the best player in this draft.
But I think this is where I figured out my football career. That's what Tennessee will always be to me.
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Comments
Pretty classy, Mr. Hooker. Best of luck to you in the future.
HH is a class act. I hope he finds continued success at the next level. Always a Hokie to me!
Hendon. I love you.
Hendon is a super talent and a pure, class act. Thankful for what he did for Hokie Nation, and for all his success with the Vols. Wishing him all the best at the next level. Forever a Hokie alum.
Best of luck to Hendon. Selfishly hoping the Panthers can pick him up in day 2 of the upcoming draft.
If you're a Hokie fan, you certainly can't complain about Hendon Hooker.
I wish him the best of luck.
Can I complain that it couldn't happen in the right color orange?
Edit: I won't even complain just kinda pout quietly, that ok?
After seeing him this season, is Hendon Hooker the best QB we've had on the roster since Tyrod? His college career has to beat out LT and Jerod Evans right?
Easily better (at QB) than LT. I feel like Evans vs HH is a toss up (when comparing their achievements at VT).
I ran some comparisons of some well known Hokie QBs using their best year at VT based on QBR (so there would be a point of comparison.)
Data is sourced from Wikipedia (edit: and cbfstats.com) and I might have typoed some of it.
I bolded the leader in each column.
Could you find/add snaps played to the table?
Edit: nvm - I see passes attempted. Which shows that hooker passed way less than Evans. He also had lesser receivers and better RBs than Evans.
Thomas had the best RB/WR combo
Evans had best recievers
Vick had best deep threat and it shows
Taylor had probably 2nd best RB/WR combo
Randall had best RBs
Hooker probably had the weakest support
Looks like Pass% for Vick and Evans aren't correct based on the completions and attempts listed. Haven't looked at the rest of the data but noticed that right off.
Oops, typos. I fixed them to match the source data. Evans pass % is now ahead of Randall by 0.1%
Unless I'm mathing incorrectly (very possible), Evans' completion percentage should be 56.4%. Which would move him from first to last.
So, there were some issues in that line. I mistyped the completion figure, but the Wikipedia page also incorrectly calculated the percentage. Fixed now, at least using the attempts/completion numbers from the page
edit: if i get some time today at work, i will try and validate this data from hokie sports. I'm sure there are probably other errors
edit again: i couldn't find useful data from hokiesports in my 10 seconds of looking, but validated some data from cbfstats.com. I think we are good now, back to Taylor. No data there prior to 2009
That's wild that Randall's best year was his sophomore year. He was 21:9 TD:Int his senior year but completion % was down and yards per attempt was down (yes those two have some correlation as yards/comp was fairly close both years)
Jerod Evans along with our NFL level receivers WAS the 2016 offense. Damn. I didn't realize he carried that team on his arm and legs like that.
There's an interview out there with him basically saying that's why he didn't come back because he didn't think he could handle 15 carries and 30 pass attempts a game again
Yeah, I've heard that interview. But it's also been all but confirmed that he was one and done from the get go. To the point where his academics were an afterthought to his NFL aspirations.
If memory serves me JE also seemed to have an outsized perception of what his draft status would be. I additionally recall him receiving the criticism that he was very much of a "one read and run" style that wouldn't translate to the NFL. These numbers contextualize how he could have convinced himself to ignore those criticisms. I get it too, honestly, even if hindsight it didn't pan out.
If my memory is correct, he was not just after the dollars. As I recall, he had a family member (a brother, I believe) that had some health issues that he hoped to help with the money he thought he was going to make.
It terms of pure talent, as opposed to on the field success? Yeah it seems like it. It does fuck all to have talent on your roster if you don't play them or put them in a box when you do play them, but I won't beat a dead horse.
They'll call out Tennessee on draft day, but at least his degree says VPISU I guess