Vols Reportedly Settle on Starting QB for Alabama

When Hendon Hooker left last weekend's game against Ole Miss with an apparent leg injury, it quickly become the topic of conversation among the Tennessee fan

When Hendon Hooker left last weekend's game against Ole Miss with an apparent leg injury, it quickly become the topic of conversation among the Tennessee fan base as Hooker has provided the most efficient quarterback play since Josh Dobbs. 

Hooker's departure left Joe Milton III to finish out the game, which ended with a mental gaffe from the veteran signal-caller that will be talked about for sometime. It is unneccesary to minutely recount those details, but suffice it to say that Tennessee fans want to see Hendon Hooker behind center moving forward. 

According to a report from ON3Sports Matt Zenit's, Hendon Hooker will start this week against Alabama. Zenits was a long-time insider around the Alabama program before moving to more of a national scale with ON3, but his story lines up with what we have heard and Josh Heupel has said this week. 

He's still day-to-day at this point," Heupel said on Wednesday. "Getting some work on the field. As we get to the end of the week we'll know if he'll be available for this one."

One source close to the program indicated to VR2 on SI that Hooker had been dealing with the injury for a couple of weeks, and that the awkward landing at the end of last week's game just re-aggravated it enough to where he could not finish the contest. 

Heupel has alluded all week that Tennessee should be healthier against the Crimson Tide than they have been over the past few weeks, as they were also without leading rusher Tiyon Evans last weekend. We will see closer to game time if Hooker is indeed the guy, as Tennessee still likes to make most of these calls between early Friday and game-time, but all signs point to Hendon Hooker being the guy to start behind center for the Third Saturday in October.