Hendon Hooker reveals the first thing Tennessee players demanded from Josh Heupel

Ahead of Josh Heupel’s third season as the head coach at Tennessee, it can be easy to forget that there were major concerns with the job after the Jeremy Pruitt era. There were a lot of issues, including the culture within the program.

Heupel knew this and went into Tennessee asking the question, what should be the first change I make? As former quarterback Hendon Hooker explained, the players wanted the team’s cleats changed from black to white before anything else happened.

“I think just from day one, he came in and asked everyone, just ‘what are some things I can do to put you guys in position to be successful?’” Hooker said. “I remember the first thing we said was ‘We need white cleats!’ Because we were tired of the black cleats.”

This was an easy change for Heupel to make when he first got to Tennessee. It’s also one that bought him a lot of sway within the locker room. As Hooker explained, it told the team that he was willing to listen and communicate with them.

“Just him wanting us to communicate with him, being a lot more open. That was one of the biggest things that we had on the whole program. We wanted to be able to communicate, have a two-way street. Coaches to players, players to players, coaches to coaches. Just communicate at a high level so we can move efficiently and conduct ourselves as pros in the college arena.”

Things have worked out well for Heupel at Tennessee to this point. In two seasons under Heupel, Tennessee is 18-8, including an 11-2 record and an Orange Bowl win in 2022.

Hendon Hooker on mentoring Joe Milton

Hendon Hooker and Joe Milton are good friends. In many respects, Hooker has even mentored Milton, a role he was thrust into following his injury last season. Because of those circumstances, it was difficult to transition into that role for Hooker.

“It was tough. I think that night, me and Joe kind of sat down on our couch, and a couple rest of our teammates came through. We just had a discussion, and everybody was just high in spirits and looking forward to our next game,” Hooker said.

“I was just motivating those guys to go out and finish what we started, no matter what had happened that previous day or that previous game, let’s continue to do what we do and prepare the right way.”