Hendon Hooker is the best quarterback that Josh Heupel has had so far during his time as the Tennessee Vols’ head coach.

And Heupel didn’t even bring Hooker to Tennessee.

Hooker, the 2022 SEC offensive player of the year, transferred from Virginia Tech to Tennessee after being recruited by then Vols head coach Jeremy Pruitt, who was fired shortly after Hooker arrived at UT.

Heupel, however, wasn’t unfamiliar with Hooker. In fact, when Heupel was the offensive coordinator at Missouri, he attempted to recruit Hooker.

But Hooker wouldn’t respond to his calls.

Hendon Hooker dishes on his relationship with Josh Heupel

Hooker, a third-round selection by the Detroit Lions in the 2023 NFL Draft, joined 365 Sports at the Super Bowl in Santa Clara this week, and he was asked about his time at Tennessee with Heupel.

“Well, Coach Heupel loves to joke about how I didn’t respond to him or Coach (Joey) Halzle when I was in high school, and he was at Missouri,” said Hooker. “I actually was recruited (as a transfer to Tennessee) by Coach Pruitt and Coach (Chris) Weinke. So they brought me in, and then maybe [within] three days of me being there, that whole coaching staff was let go. And then Coach Heupel was brought in the next week.

“So sitting down with him (Heupel), I think we watched all of my film from Virginia Tech from 2019 to 2020. And we really just diagnosed any problems that I might have had, whether that was my eyes, my feet, throwing mechanics. And we went forward from there. And after a while, he was telling me to just go out there and have fun.”

Hooker pointed out that he’s still close with Heupel.

“Our bond and relationship is extremely special to me,” said Hooker. “His family and my family are very close. I know I’ll be down in Knoxville in the next couple of weeks, and I’ll spend some time with him. We always get our couple of hours [together] of just catching up on life. He’s a great coach and a fantastic person.”

Hooker didn’t initially win the starting quarterback job at Tennessee. The Vols went with Joe Milton to start the 2021 season, but it didn’t take long for Hooker to emerge as the best option.

The Greensboro, NC, native started the final 11 games of the 2021 season and 11 more during a memorable 2022 season for the Vols (wins against Alabama, Florida, and LSU). Unfortunately for Hooker, his Tennessee career ended prematurely when he tore his ACL against South Carolina in the penultimate game of the regular season.

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