NEW ORLEANS — Hendon Hooker continues his stretch of finalist recognition, earning Manning Award finalist honors Friday afternoon, according to University of Tennessee Athletics.
Hooker is the first finalist for the Manning Award in program history since it was commissioned in 2004. The award was created by the Allstate Sugar Bowl in honor of the college football accomplishments of Archie, Eli and Peyton Manning.
Hooker is no stranger to recognition for this kind of award. He earned the award's weekly recognition, Manning Award Star of the Week, four times this season. He did so following a 349-yard passing day against Florida that also ae the redshirt-senior rush for 112 yards and a touchdown, the athletics department said.
His five-touchdown, 385-yard heroic performance against Alabama earned him recognition and he followed that up with a three-touchdown, 245-yard game in prime time against Kentucky, UT Athletics said. His final collegiate home game also earned the attention of the award after Hooker threw for 355 yards and three touchdowns in a record-setting offensive showing against Missouri, according to the athletics department. One that produced 724 total yards of offense, a single-game program high.
Though hard to do following his first year, Hooker one-upped his 2021 season totals.
He completed a single-season record 229-of-329 passes, a 69.6 completion percentage, topping his own high-water mark of 68.0 from 2021. For his career, he surpassed one of the namesakes for the award, connecting on 435 of 632 passes for a 68.6 percent completion rate while dawning the Orange & White, UT Athletics said.
The Big Orange signal caller passed for 3,135 yards in a season cut short by his injury. He was on pace to surpass 30 passing touchdowns for the second-consecutive season but concluded his final collegiate season with 27 aerial scores and five touchdowns on the ground in 11 games, according to the athletics department.
Currently, Hooker still ranks as the SEC leader in multiple statistical categories, leading the toughest conference in college football in completion percentage (69.6), passing efficiency (175.5), total offense (324.1) and yards per passing attempt (9.53), UT Athletics said. Those figures become especially impressive given he did so against the seventh-toughest schedule in the FBS and earned five AP Top 25 victories at the helm of the Big Orange offense.
Hooker was named the SEC Player of the Year on Wednesday, Nov. 30, by the USA Today Sports Network, which is selected by a group of 13 writers who cover the conference on a daily basis.
A sixth-year senior and captain of the nation's No. 1 offense, Hooker led the No. 7 Vols to their first 10-win regular season since 2003 and the program's first-ever No. 1 ranking by the College Football Playoff committee when the rankings debuted on Nov. 1, according to UT Athletics.
With the Manning Award being the only quarterback award that takes into consideration bowl performance, the 2022 honoree will be announced in January, following the conclusion of all bowls.
According to UT Athletics, other finalists for the award include Stetson Bennett (Georgia), Max Duggan (TCU), Sam Hartman (Wake Forest), Drake Maye (North Carolina), Bo Nix (Oregon), Michael Penix Jr. (Washington), Will Rogers (Mississippi State), C.J. Stroud (Ohio State), Caleb Williams (USC) and Bryce Young (Alabama).
