Tennessee football: Hendon Hooker on 2022 Davey O’Brien watch list
One day after being named to the Maxwell Award Preseason Watch List for the 2022 season, Tennessee football quarterback Hendon Hooker made another watch list. He may not be getting the recognition he deserves from outlets, but voters on awards are certainly showing him love.
Anyway, Hooker is one of 35 quarterbacks who has been named to the 2022 Davey O’Brien Award Preseason Watch List. The award has been given out each year to the best quarterback in college football dating back to the 1981 season.
Just like the Maxwell Award, which Hooker is up with along with Cedric Tillman, Peyton Manning is the only Tennessee football player to win the Davey O’Brien Award. He won both of them in 1997 when he set school records for passing yards, total offense and passing and total touchdowns.
All of those records outside of passing yards are in danger of falling with Hooker at the helm this year. Hooker didn’t even play a full season in 2021 and had the fourth best year in school history in total offense with 3,561 yards, the third best in total touchdowns with 36 and tied for the third best in passing touchdowns with 31.
Every other player ahead of him on any of those lists, including Manning, Joshua Dobbs, Tyler Bray and Erik Ainge, did it their final season on Rocky Top. As a result, nobody in school history has returned at quarterback coming off a productive year like Hooker’s.
Taking that into account, you can see why the Virginia Tech Hokies transfer, who has his top receiver back in Tillman and is playing in Josh Heupel’s system, would be a candidate to win the O’Brien Award at the start of the season. This isn’t really shocking.
Funny enough, Tennessee football has an interesting connection with Davey O’Brien himself. The Vols’ first claimed national championship season, which is also the first year they won the SEC and the first year they played in a bowl game, was in 1938.
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Despite going 11-0 that season, though, they split the national championship with the TCU Horned Frogs, who won the AP National Championship. O’Brien was their quarterback that year. He won the Heisman, and TCU and UT are the only teams recognized as champions from then.