Josh Heupel explains how Hendon Hooker's experience in offense is a two-way street

Josh Heupel recognizes what the rest of the college football world is finding out — Hendon Hooker has grown immensely since joining Tennessee.

Evolving from Volunteers backup to star quarterback over his time in Knoxville, Hooker has earned more trust from his coaching staff. Speaking with the media, the Volunteers head coach elaborated on the “two-way street” that is the Tennessee offense with Hooker now.

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“The longer you’re with a quarterback, and the more understanding of what you’re trying to do and why you’re trying to attack a defense that way, there’s more trust from him too, if there’s something new that’s going into the game plan. He can understand the reason why behind it,” began Heupel. “Probably feels more comfortable than he necessarily would when he’s young inside of your offense. So I think it’s a two-way street. You know, for us offensively? From Coach Golesh to Glenn Elarbee to our entire offensive staff. Coach Halzle.

“I think we have a much better understanding than we did a year ago at this time. Who was our personnel, what could they execute and how do we put them in a position to be successful.”

As you can see, it’s no accident that Hendon Hooker has become a star under Josh Heupel’s watch at Tennessee. Through hard work, communication and the immense talent he possesses, the quarterback is reaching his potential with the Volunteers.

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

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

“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.

“That’s why you’ve seen the success and the growth.”

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 game-plan on the front end.”