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Injury forced Tennessee to switch quarterbacks early in the season as a substitute Hendon hooker, having completed the final two quarters of last week’s loss to Pittsburgh, started and played more than two quarters in the 56-0 win over Tennessee Tech in place of the absent incumbent Joe milton iii. Hooker totaled 263 yards and four touchdowns in the win before giving way to the third string Harrison bailey, who landed a touchdown to cap the easy victory over the Golden Eagles of the Football Championship Subdivision. The Head Coach Josh Heupel evaluated Hooker and Bailey’s play and updated Milton’s status after the match.
Heupel suggested Milton was able to return to training with limited capacity midweek, but indicated that Hooker took the majority of the first-team reps in training. Milton is suffering from a lower limb injury and Heupel said the Vols felt at the end of the week he wouldn’t be ready to play. Going forward, the next two days could determine Michigan’s transfer status for next week’s opener in Florida.
The first-year Tennessee head coach has ducked the question of whether Milton would be Tennessee’s starter in Gainesville if he is in good health.
“He had the opportunity to work with us in the middle of the week,” Heupel said after Tennessee improved to 2-1. “At the end of the week, he just didn’t feel like he was going to be ready. I think the next few days will be important in his rehabilitation to see where he is when we are in the field on Tuesday.
Hooker had 17 of 25 passes for 199 yards with touchdown passes to JaVonta Payton, Hairy Jones Jr. and Jacob Warren and added 64 rushing yards with a rushing touchdown. He had another touchdown on a 23-yard run called off by a recovery with the running back Jaylen wright steal the score on the next snap. Hooker, who had two turnovers against Pittsburgh, fumbled in a scrum and was lucky enough to get the football back after a mismanaged mesh point with Tiyon Evans.
The transfer from Virginia Tech was the 16th start of his college career. Like Milton last week, he missed out on a few downline big play opportunities, knocking down both Payton and Cedric Tillman in the first trimester. He had a few similar 20-yard passes dropped by Payton, who made a jump grab on a precise Hooker pitch for a 29-yard touchdown for Tennessee’s first scoring.
“Real positives,” Heupel said. “Decisive, precise at times, did a good job using his feet at times. Turnovers can’t happen. There are games in the pocket passing game, there are still wide and deep receivers behind the secondary, and we are not tapping into those. I have to, I have to make these parts at some point.
Bailey, who started Tennessee’s last three games as a freshman last season, made his 2021 debut at the end of the third quarter with the Vols up 49-0. The runner-up completed three of his seven passing attempts for 16 yards, was sacked once, rushed for a first down on a fourth down and scored a 2-yard touchdown on a goaltender. Heupel said that outside of a series, Bailey took second-team representatives to practice preparing to be the backup for Saturday’s game.
“I thought he did a really good job, you know what I mean?” Heupel said. “I thought he was efficient, had his eyes in the right place, the pace. On some of the running passes he made the right decisions and pulled the ball out of his hands. I thought he had escaped several times and picked up one and was about to pick up another with his feet too.
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