Josh Heupel gives take on managing Hendon Hooker's reps

There’s no doubt that Hendon Hooker is heading into the 2022 college football season as Tennessee‘s starting quarterback. After putting together a standout season in 2021 and then making the decision to return to Knoxville, Volunteers’ head coach Josh Heupel has no choice but to send Hooker out onto the field as his starter for the upcoming campaign.

Hooker, who threw for 2,945 yards and 31 touchdowns compared to only three interceptions last season, had thought about entering the NFL Draft before ultimately deciding to come back to Tennessee for one last ride – and that’s huge for Tennessee.

While the Volunteers have been going through spring practices as part of their preparation for the upcoming 2022 campaign, Hooker has been playing with the first-team offense, which means that he’s gotten plenty of reps – but he wasn’t on the field all that much during the team’s scrimmage on Saturday.

Meeting with the media following the scrimmage, Heupel was asked about Hooker only being on the field for a couple series – and the coach shared how he is managing the quarterback’s reps.

“It was just unique in the way it unfolded,” Heupel said. “The first drive for the one’s had a huge play, play-count rep. Today, there’s no TV – it was strictly play-count and how we’re trying to mange each set for all of our guys.

“[Hooker] did a lot of competitive work, and he’s happy to get a bunch of it on the first drive.”

Alongside the redshirt senior Hooker, Tennessee has two primary backup quarterbacks in the mix with fellow redshirt senior Joe Milton and On3 Consensus four-star freshman Tayven Jackson – and they’ve been getting plenty of reps throughout the spring, as well.

Tennessee is scheduled to kickoff its 2022 season on Saturday, Sept. 3 against Ball State at Neyland Stadium in Knoxville.