NEW ORLEANS (October 20, 2022) – Hendon Hooker, Tennessee's star quarterback, has been selected as the Manning Award Quarterback of the Week for the second time this season. He earns the honor over seven other Manning Award Stars of the Week in the Allstate Sugar Bowl's Facebook contest.

Facebook Voting
 
Hooker rose to the occasion in leading Tennessee to one of its biggest wins in recent history. The Greensboro, N.C., product completed 21-of-30 passes for a career-high 385 yards and five touchdowns as the sixth-ranked Volunteers shocked No. 3 Alabama, 52-49, in a thrilling SEC showdown at Neyland Stadium.
 
After a Crimson Tide field goal knotted the game at 49 with 15 seconds to go, overtime seemed inevitable. However, Hooker completed passes of 18 yards and 27 yards to set up the game-winning 40-yard field goal as time ran out.
 
The 52 points was the most scored against Alabama since 1907 and the victory snapped a 15-game losing streak for the Volunteers against the Tide.
 
At the halfway point in the season, Hooker has amassed 1,817 yards on 119-of-170 (70 percent) passing. He has completed 15 touchdown passes and thrown only one interception, increasing his Tennessee career total to 46 aerial scores which ranks sixth in program history. He has also run for 287 yards and three more touchdowns.
 
Tennessee returns to action on Saturday when it hosts state rival UT Martin in an 11 a.m. game on the SEC Network.
 
Hooker's closest competition in this week's Facebook voting contest came from K.J. Jefferson from Arkansas and Utah's Cameron Rising. Jefferson completed 29-of-40 passes for 367 yards and a career-high five touchdowns to leads the Razorbacks to 644 total yards in a 52-35 road win over BYU. Rising was 30-of-44 for 415 yards and a pair of touchdowns while also running for three touchdowns in a thrilling 43-42 victory over No. 7 USC.
 
While the Manning Award selected 30 quarterbacks for its preseason Watch List, additional quarterbacks will be added to the Watch List next week. Ten finalists will be selected and the winner is scheduled to be announced following the College Football Playoff National Championship.

In its first 18 years, the Manning Award has recognized the top names in college football. It has honored quarterbacks from 13 different schools and from four different conferences. The Southeastern Conference (Bryce Young, Joe Burrow, Mac Jones, Johnny Manziel, Cam Newton, JaMarcus Russell and Tim Tebow) leads the way with seven Manning Award honorees, while the Big 12 Conference (Kyler Murray, Baker Mayfield, Vince Young, Colt McCoy and Robert Griffin III) has had five winners. The Atlantic Coast Conference (Deshaun Watson twice, Matt Ryan and Jameis Winston) has had four Manning Award winners. Alabama (B. Young and Jones) joins LSU (Burrow and Russell), Oklahoma (Murray and Mayfield) and Texas (McCoy and V. Young) as the only schools with two different winners.

All the Manning Award winners follow in the footsteps of the Mannings themselves. In college, Archie, Peyton and Eli Manning combined for over 25,000 passing yards and 201 touchdowns while playing in 10 bowl games and earning four bowl MVP awards. Archie was the No. 2 pick in the NFL Draft, while both Peyton and Eli were selected No. 1 overall.