Hendon Hooker injury update: Tennessee announces QB’s injury suffered against South Carolina

Hendon Hooker’s college career is officially over. Tennessee has announced that the Volunteers quarterback tore his ACL in Saturday’s game at South Carolina.

Hooker left Saturday’s game in Columbia during the third quarter. ESPN cameras showed that the Tennessee star QB was in immense pain. Sideline reporter Holly Rowe relayed during the game that Hooker had been ruled out of a possible return due to a knee injury.

A brutal night for Tennessee got worse as Hendon Hooker goes down on a non-contact play. Awful. pic.twitter.com/ekmoMVyGNc

— Kevin Negandhi (@KevinNegandhi) November 20, 2022

The 2022 season was Hooker’s final year of college eligibility.

Thank you @henhook2 ?#VFL pic.twitter.com/7IlJWpFOmj

— Tennessee Football (@Vol_Football) November 20, 2022

A Virginia Tech transfer, Hooker replaced former Michigan QB Joe Milton as Tennessee’s starting quarterback in Week 3 of the 2021 season. Hooker was considered one of the leading Heisman Trophy candidates in 2022, throwing for 3,135 yards and 27 touchdowns with just 2 interceptions. He has already been named a finalist for this year’s Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award.

Hooker led the Vols to an 8-0 start this season, including wins over Florida, LSU, Alabama and Kentucky. In 10 games this year, Hooker posted an SEC-leading 9.5 yards per attempt, which ranks No. 3 in the nation.

UT ends the regular season at Vanderbilt on Saturday (7:30 p.m. ET, SEC Network) and will learn its bowl assignment in 2 weeks. Milton played the rest of the South Carolina-Tennessee game.

Andrew Olson

Andrew writes about sports to fund his love of live music and collection of concert posters. He strongly endorses the Hall of Fame campaigns of Fred Taylor and Andruw Jones.