As Tennessee kicker Chase McGrath‘s foot kicked a knuckleball field goal 40 yards through the uprights as time expired, the attendance of 102,455 at Neyland Stadium erupted into euphoria after a 52-49 in Knoxville Saturday night.
The 2022 season for Tennessee has seen them break many dubious streaks and curses. Last night’s win over No. 3 Alabama was the first win versus the Crimson Tide in 15 games. Earlier in the season, Tennessee earned their second win versus Florida since 2005 and first since 2016. They also went on the road and defeated the reigning ACC Champions Pitt Panthers 34-27 for their first win against Pitt ever, and first out of conference win against a defending Power 5 conference champion since defeating Miami in 2003.
With the win over Alabama, the No. 6 Tennessee looks to inch close to the Top 4 in the polls and begin to anchor themselves a seat for the College Football Playoff.
The three main pieces in the signature win for the Tennessee program were head coach Josh Heupel, quarterback Hendon Hooker, and wide receiver Jalin Hyatt.
The engineer of this monumental win was head coach Heupel, who, in Year 2 in Knoxville, has the Volunteers back into championship contention. But Heupel is no stranger to playing or coaching for championships.
As a player for Oklahoma, he helped guide the Sooners to the 2000 National Championship, and then as an assistant coach with the Sooners between 2006-2014, he was a quarterbacks coach and co-offensive coordinator helping guide the Sooners to five Big XII championships and an appearance in the 2008 BCS National Championship Game against Florida.
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Heupel began his head coaching career following Scott Frost at UCF in 2018 and spent three seasons with UCF. During his tenure with UCF, the Knights finished in the Top 10 in scoring and Top 5 in total offense in each season en route to a 28-8 record.
Heupel reunited with Danny White in Knoxville. White was UCF’s athletic director from 2015-2021. When White got the Tennessee athletic director job, one of his first acts was to terminate Jeremy Pruitt as head coach due to poor performance and NCAA recruiting infractions.
White tabbed Heupel as his coach, he said of hiring Heupel,
“Josh Heupel, who I had the privilege of working with for three years, is everything we were looking for: winning with integrity, a history of championships and the architect of explosive offenses. He is a players’ coach and the kind of person the student-athletes go the extra mile for. I saw that first-hand, and you can see it in his coaching record.” – Tennessee AD Danny White
All Heupel did in his first season in Knoxville was set a school record in scoring with 511 points. The Vols were also Top 10 in the nation at 39.3 points per game.
In order to get his high-octane offense up and running quickly, Heupel leveraged the transfer portal to fill in all of the gaps that were left on the roster after Pruitt’s firing. The portal is where they also happened to find the single most important piece to the puzzle, quarterback Hendon Hooker.
“I grew up in Blacksburg,” Hooker said figuratively who was recollecting to Dennis Dodd at CBS Sports when he was making the decision to enter the transfer portal. “A lot of my friends from home came because I was there already. I tried to handle it professionally. … I jumped in the [transfer] portal a couple of days later. I remember coming in to tell Coach Fuente about it. It brought tears to my eyes because I really enjoyed being there.”
Hooker was beginning to realize the writing on the wall at Virginia Tech. Virginia Tech head coach Justin Fuente was beginning to lean on Braxton Burmeister to lead the team. Hooker was dealing with issues with his heart after a reaction to medication that didn’t work out and the episode where Hooker couldn’t get to normal body temperature.
Hooker recalled a game against Clemson late in the season, “You’re on the top of the mountain [at Virginia Tech]. There’s no heat on the sidelines. You try to do some jumping jacks. All a sudden, my body just starts to shake. My teeth are chattering. I see my fingernails turning blue. What in the world? This is crazy! To come back in the next day [and see] my coach told the media I was just cold was hurtful. I didn’t know what to say.”
Seeking a new home, Hooker visited Tennessee and forged a bond with then-head coach Jeremy Pruitt and staff. As Hooker was studying his new playbook, he learned that Pruitt was subject to infractions and with a poor performance Pruitt was relieved of his duties. Hooker’s family reached out to him sensing instability but was urged by Chris Weinke to stay in Knoxville.
His decision to stay ran into an early obstacle, as Heupel brought in via the transfer portal Joe Milton from Michigan to compete with Hooker for the starting job. Initially, Milton won the position and started the first two games of the 2021 season. But after only completing just 49% of his passes, Milton got hurt against Pitt Panthers and Hooker took over. He hasn’t looked back since.
For the remaining of the 2021 season, Hooker would play in Heupel’s system and would flourish realizing his potential and White’s words of what Heupel’s offense came to fruition for the Volunteers faithful.
Sometimes you have to be ready for your opportunity to shine and you never know when it will happen.
Heupel and his staff were hoping Hyatt would make a leap last season, but it didn’t all click. The Irmo, SC native finished the season with 21 receptions, far less than both he and the staff anticipated.
Things began to click for Hyatt during the 2022 offseason and Heupel recognized it, “(Jalin) is just a different individual in the way that he approaches every day and his process to getting himself to be ready play during the course of a game week and all offseason,” Heupel said. “Everybody inside of our program, talking about our players, can see the difference in that guy.”
Hyatt had his breakout earlier in the season against Pitt, where Hooker targeted him 13 times and he finished with 11 receptions for 73 yards. Hyatt said after the Pitt game, “It is rewarding just to see as far as what I have done so far, but I am not content with everything. I feel like I haven’t done anything yet.”
After the Pitt game, the Volunteers haven’t had No. 1 wide receiver Cedric Tillman for much of the season giving opportunities to fellow wide receivers Bru McCoy, Ramel Keyton, and Hyatt.
Hyatt had his signature game last night against the Crimson Tide, he finished with six receptions for 207 yards receiving and tied Tennessee’s record with five receiving touchdowns.
Hyatt said after the game, “(This game) just happened,” Hyatt said. “It’s not just me. It was just the looks we got.”
The spoils Hyatt got smoking the victory cigar is one with the immortal Peyton Manning is one that will last forever for him.
Hendon Hooker is now clearly in the Heisman conversation, despite throwing his first interception in 260 attempts on the season during the third quarter against the Tide. Even with that interception, his stats were still incredible, finishing 21 of 30 through the air for 385 yards passing and five touchdowns as well as an additional 56 yards rushing.
Heupel said of Hooker’s performance against the Crimson Tide, “He played at an unbelievable level, he’s the key to our ignition.” That ignition of getting the Volunteers to 52 points against Alabama were the most points against the Crimson Tide since Sewanee (Tennessee) beat them 54-4 in 1907.
This particular game had a lot of the same feelings the 2019 LSU vs Alabama clash had.
LSU had a very potent offense and after winning two national championships in the 2000’s decade, they simply couldn’t get past Alabama throughout the 2010s. But their best shot, just like LSU’s, rested on the back of having the most potent offense in program history. And they took advantage of it.
The euphoria following the game is eerily similar to that of. heavyweight boxer who just went the distance in a title fight and one. There is the joy of victory along with the relief of lasting through the battle that took everything out of you.
Hooker has been playing at a Heisman level for a season and a half at this point. He has 45 touchdowns to a mere four interceptions during his time in Knoxville. He will be the key as the Volunteers take dead aim toward the College Football Playoff. Standing in their way is their other most hate SEC nemesis, the reigning national champion Georgia Bulldogs. They head to Athens on November 5 in what will be a pivotal test for both squads.
Heupel said after his win over Alabama, “This is college football at its absolute best. We were the best team on the field tonight. That’s all we can control.” That similar mindset will get them to SoFi Stadium on January 9th.
