The No.5 ranked Tennessee Volunteers have been led by senior quarterback Hendon Hooker all season. Unfortunately, the star quarterback suffered what looks to be a serious knee injury in their matchup against the South Carolina Gamecocks on Saturday.
The injury occurred in the fourth quarter on a designed option play for Hooker. While running the ball Hooker went down without any contact, fumbling the ball in the process.
He was clearly in a ton of pain after the play, visibly screaming in pain on the ground after his leg awkwardly gave out on him.
It’s hard not to feel for Hooker considering he likely has an NFL career in his future, and many took to social media to express their sadness about this terrible-looking injury.
https://twitter.com/NicoleAuerbach/status/1594168585408155648
Coming into Saturday’s game, Hooker had the second-best odds to win the Heisman Trophy, only behind Ohio State star quarterback C.J. Stroud, according to ESPN.
We obviously won’t know the full extent of Hooker’s injury until an MRI is done, but it is never a good sign when it is a non-contact injury to a knee area.
The obvious concern for Hooker is that this could be a torn ACL, which would be brutal — both for his chances of an NFL career and for Tennessee for the remainder of the season.
This is a devastating blow for Tennessee regardless of what the diagnosis for Hooker ends up being.
Even the best-case scenario for Hendon Hooker would likely rule him out for the remainder of the Volunteers’ season, and chances are his outlook following this injury is far worse than that.
About Reice Shipley
Reice Shipley is a staff writer for Comeback Media that graduated from Ithaca College with a degree in Sports Media. He previously worked at Barrett Sports Media and is a fan of all things Syracuse sports.