Tennessee football: Hendon Hooker on Manning Watch List fitting given records he’s chasing

This was expected to a degree. Tennessee football quarterback Hendon Hooker is on every preseason awards watch list an FBS quarterback can be on. However, given the records he is chasing on Rocky Top, being on the Manning Watch List is a bit more special.

Hooker was one of 30 players announced on this year’s Manning Award Preseason Watch List. Unlike the Davey O’Brien Trophy and the Maxwell Award, two other watch lists Hooker is on, this award takes into account a player’s postseason performance.

Named after Peyton, Eli and Archie Manning, the award goes to the best quarterback in the nation. Hooker has a chance to break a lot of Tennessee football records held by Peyton Manning this year, so it’s honestly fitting that he would be on the watch list.

Currently, Manning’s 1997 season is the gold standard for UT quarterbacks. He threw for 3,819 yards and 36 touchdowns that year, both UT records. Even if you factor in rushing yards for quarterbacks, Manning’s total offense from 1997 is the record. Josh Dobbs is second.

However, after being inserted into the starting lineup in the middle of Tennessee football’s second game against the Pittsburgh Panthers last year, Hooker showed just how great he could be. He actually threatened Manning’s records in the process.

Hooker threw for 31 touchdowns, tied for third in a single season with Erik Ainge and behind Tyler Bray, and he also threw for 2,945 yards, which is 10th all time. Add in his over 600 rushing yards and five rushing touchdowns, and his total offense was fourth all time in yards and third all time in touchdowns for a single season.

With him and his go-to receiver, Cedric Tillman, both back this year, all signs point to him being able to shatter some of Manning’s records. He could break the touchdowns pass record, throwing for 37, and he could also break the total touchdowns record, which is 39. Manning and Dobbs hold that one together.

Obviously, he could break the total offense record with a year to himself. When you take into account the fact that he is playing in Josh Heupel’s system, Hooker has been a dark-horse Heisman Trophy candidate for a reason.

If he really wanted to live up to the legacy of Peyton Manning, he would shatter all the records and then lose the Heisman Trophy to a far less deserving defensive back. That’s the real tradition on Rocky Top, losing awards you rightfully deserve.

Still, it’s fitting for Hooker to be on this watch list. Obviously, he’s got to compete with players like last year’s Heisman winner, Alabama Crimson Tide quarterback Bryce Young, but if he takes another step forward, that’s certainly possible.

It gets crazier and crazier that he wasn’t Tennessee football’s starting quarterback immediately last year. If he had been, there’s a chance he would already have the records, and UT probably would have at least one more win, against Pitt.