Tennessee QB coach Joey Halzle discusses trust between Hendon Hooker, coaching staff

Entering his second season at Tennessee, Hendon Hooker has developed into a college football star with the help of head coach Josh Heupel and quarterback coach Joey Halzle. After transferring from Virginia Tech to compete for a job which he did not initially win, the trust between both sides has steadily grown on and off the field.

During a recent press conference, quarterback coach Joey Halzle discussed how he has seen Hendon Hooker progress and how their relationship has created an advantage for the whole team.

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“Similar to what we talked about at the beginning of fall camp, Hendon’s a completely different guy,” said Halzle. His confidence, his fundamentals, his development. He’s a completely different quarterback form the mental side, physical side, the entire aspect of playing the position. And that’s why you’ve seen the success and the growth.”

Joey Halzle on Hendon Hooker

While his growth on the field has helped take Tennessee from a bad spot entering 2021 to a hot pick to challenge Georgia in the SEC East in 2022, the behind the scenes work he put in during the offseason to develop a better relationship with his coaches off the field has raised the ceiling for all involved.

“With Hendon, he’s at the point right now, the way he’s playing you’ve got an open book with him,” said Halzle. “If you can call it, you feel comfortable he’ll operate anything you put him out there. And the other thing is what we’ve talked about on his confidence side of it. He will now let us know if he’s uncomfortable. Like, ‘hey, I’m not comfortable with that’ or ‘I don’t like that.’ And we know if he’s saying that then it’s gone. He’s not just saying it because he’s uncomfortable or he’s worried about it. He’s like, ‘nah, I don’t like this, it doesn’t fit, I don’t like how it’s timing up?’ Cool, it’s out.

So we have that kind of bonding rapport now where we can call anything. He trusts us that what we’re putting in the game will make sense and then if it doesn’t work for either one, we can pull it. Which makes it – on our end – a lot easier to gameplan on the front end.”

The relationship between Hooker and his coaching staff will only continue as the season progresses and he gets more reps with this new unit of wide receivers and tight ends. A Tennessee team which was expected to make a leap in Year 2 could do even better with the playbook clicking for all involved.