Hendon Hooker debuts children's book of scriptures on SEC Network
Tennessee quarterback Hendon Hooker will spend SEC media day answering plenty of questions about the Vols offense this upcoming season, but also promoting his book ‘The ABC’S of Scripture for Athletes’. Hooker’s religious upbringing inspired the faith based book he wrote for children with his brother Alston Hooker.
“Me and my brother thought it was a great idea, my dad kind of pitched the idea to us. Growing up my parents were big in the church, so we were raised in the church, and one thing that we used to do was have scriptures and try to memorize them matching them up with the alphabet,” Hooker said. “So my little cousin, Landon Hooker he’s 6 years old, he loves to play ball that’s all he wants to do all day. But we wanted to encourage him to read some more, so we created this book, added some effects with football players and basketball players so it would entice him to read a little bit more and it’s been a great success.”
Hooker is poised to have a big season for Tennessee this year in his second season under Josh Heupel, but off the field he’s also making an impact through his book already.
‘The ABC’S of Scripture for Athletes’ along with flashcards and a t-shirt can be purchased at Hooker’s website www.hookedonsports.org.
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Hendon Hooker discusses how he handled Tennessee’s QB competition in 2021
Hendon Hooker may be the unquestioned starting quarterback for Tennesseeentering the 2022 season, but the journey he took to get there was far from the norm.
To illustrate, Joe Milton was the starting quarterback for the Volunteers when they opened the 2021 season. After he suffered an injury in their second game against Pittsburgh, Hooker — a transfer from Virginia Tech — stepped in, never to let go of the starting job again.
His 11 games as a starter have many believing in what he and Tennessee can be this year, and Hooker enlightened the SEC Network crew at SEC Media Days as to how he got to this point.
“Knowing that I’ve been in that position before,” stated Hooker, speaking about how he persevered through last season’s competition. “Every year that I’ve been in college, I’ve been in a competition with other quarterbacks. So, competition is nothing that I shy away from.
“But the biggest thing for me was just being confident in my game. Going back and watching old, successful film, and bad film as well. Knowing I’ve come a long way, and I still have a ways to go. But just continuing to grind day in and day out, and being confident.”
It wasn’t an easy road for Hendon Hooker, but his path to success is firmly in his grasp now. The Tennessee star quarterback has potential to shock the world in 2022.
On3’s Stephen Samra contributed to this report.