kamoshika
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Excellent piece for KNS subscribers, though I was able to pull it up w/o a subscription:
In 2021, Hooker transferred to Tennessee and competed for the starting quarterback job. Coaches thought Hooker was tight and surprisingly unathletic, and Michigan transfer Joe Milton beat him out. “Maybe it was my fault. I was raised in a different era when football had to be serious, like it’s war,” said Hooker’s dad, a former All-American quarterback at North Carolina A&T. “I give Halzle and (coach Josh Heupel) credit because all these years we’ve tried to get Hendon to relax. But it took the Heupel effect to finally do it — just be yourself and have fun playing football.”
...Halzle strolled into Pratt Pavilion on Tennessee’s campus and caught a glimpse of Hooker and his football teammates playing a pickup basketball game. There was that same smile across Hooker’s face and the subtle swagger that Tennessee football coaches had not seen since he transferred from Virginia Tech a few months earlier. “Nobody could guard him,” Halzle said. “So I told him, ‘I want you to play football like you play basketball.’ Because when he plays basketball, he knows he’s the best player on the court.”
...When Halzle was a Missouri offensive analyst under Heupel in 2016, he saw a video of Hooker’s high school basketball highlights while evaluating him as a football recruit. Halzle was impressed, but he stored that away until they were reunited at Tennessee. “I noticed that being serious every single moment of his life didn’t work for (Hooker),” Halzle said. “But when I watched him messing around playing basketball, he’d get a big smile on his face. This is football. This is fun. And when he started loosening up, that’s when you saw the growth in Hendon.”
https://www.knoxnews.com/story/spor...-life-tennessee-football-success/10235784002/
In 2021, Hooker transferred to Tennessee and competed for the starting quarterback job. Coaches thought Hooker was tight and surprisingly unathletic, and Michigan transfer Joe Milton beat him out. “Maybe it was my fault. I was raised in a different era when football had to be serious, like it’s war,” said Hooker’s dad, a former All-American quarterback at North Carolina A&T. “I give Halzle and (coach Josh Heupel) credit because all these years we’ve tried to get Hendon to relax. But it took the Heupel effect to finally do it — just be yourself and have fun playing football.”
...Halzle strolled into Pratt Pavilion on Tennessee’s campus and caught a glimpse of Hooker and his football teammates playing a pickup basketball game. There was that same smile across Hooker’s face and the subtle swagger that Tennessee football coaches had not seen since he transferred from Virginia Tech a few months earlier. “Nobody could guard him,” Halzle said. “So I told him, ‘I want you to play football like you play basketball.’ Because when he plays basketball, he knows he’s the best player on the court.”
...When Halzle was a Missouri offensive analyst under Heupel in 2016, he saw a video of Hooker’s high school basketball highlights while evaluating him as a football recruit. Halzle was impressed, but he stored that away until they were reunited at Tennessee. “I noticed that being serious every single moment of his life didn’t work for (Hooker),” Halzle said. “But when I watched him messing around playing basketball, he’d get a big smile on his face. This is football. This is fun. And when he started loosening up, that’s when you saw the growth in Hendon.”
https://www.knoxnews.com/story/spor...-life-tennessee-football-success/10235784002/
