Mike Leach Believed Hendon Hooker Was Best QB in the SEC For 2022 Season

Late Mississippi State head coach Mike Leach noted Tennessee's Hendon Hooker as the best quarterback in the conference ahead of the 2023 NFL Draft.

Former Mississippi State head football coach Mike Leach was heralded as one of the best offensive masterminds and quarterback gurus in college football over the course of his lifetime, with several at the position who shattered records and found success under his guidance.

One of those was Josh Heupel, who played quarterback under Leach at Oklahoma and recently coached one of the best in the nation in Tennessee Volunteers signal-caller Hendon Hooker. 

Hooker has received high praise from multiple analysts ahead of the 2023 NFL Draft, and is precisely who Leach said was the best quarterback in the Southeastern Conference during the 2022 season in a phone call with us in December. 

He also noted that he believed Kentucky's Will Levis had been too highly projected on the draft boards and that he found him to be "inconsistent and unimpressive" in multiple aspects.

Leach praised Hooker for his timing and release, what he brought to the table from a mental perspective and his ability to evade pressure while being smart about when to use his legs. 

The only real knock on Hooker that he had was more from an intangibles perspective, saying that Hooker had "a hard time picking himself up during in-game situations where he appeared to get discouraged" but also noted that he feels it was something that got better as time went on. 

Earlier during the season, Leach had noted some of the similarities between he and Heupel's offense and how well Hooker ran them.

“He’s definitely got some things that look familiar,” Leach told me. “I can think of a play in particular that we ran back in the day. He’s got his quarterback running that play better than he ran it. So, yes."

The decision to call Hooker the best quarterback in the SEC is particularly notable because of the fact Alabama standout Bryce Young has a strong 2022 season despite a lackluster group of wide receivers and is expected to be either the first or second quarterback off the board when Round 1 action gets underway. 

Hooker finished out the 2022 season with a 69.6% completion rate, 3,135 passing yards, 27 touchdowns and two interceptions on 329 attempts. He also carried the ball for 430 rushing yards with five touchdowns on the ground on 104 carries.