Tennessee’s dynamic duo of Hendon Hooker and Cedric Tillman has been named to the preseason watch list for the 86th Maxwell Award, as announced by the Maxwell Football Club on Monday.
The Maxwell Award has been presented to the College Player of the Year since 1937 and is named in honor of Robert “Tiny” Maxwell, who was a former standout at the Swarthmore College and a renowned sports writer and football official.
UT is one of four Southeastern Conference teams and 13 teams across the country with multiple selections on the 85-man preseason watch list.
Hooker, a native of Greensboro, North Carolina, enters his sixth and final collegiate season as one of the top quarterbacks in all of college football. The owner of single-season school records in completion percentage (68.0) and passing efficiency (181.4), Hooker racked up 3,561 yards of total offense and 36 total touchdowns in 11 starts during the 2021 season, his first at Tennessee after transferring from Virginia Tech.
Hooker became the Vols first Davey O’Brien Award semifinalist since Erik Ainge in 2006 and will look to lead the Big Orange to another successful season in 2022.
Tillman is the top returning wide receiver in the SEC and a candidate for the Biletnikoff Award. He owns the school record for consecutive games with a touchdown catch with seven, a streak that continues entering the fall. The Las Vegas native finished his redshirt junior season with 64 catches for 1,081 yards and 12 touchdowns. In Vol single-season annals, he ranked fifth in receiving yards and second in touchdowns.
Together, Hooker and Tillman form one of the most productive duos in college football and will look to lead the Vols’ high-powered offense to new heights in 2022. They will both represent Tennessee at SEC Media Days on Thursday at the College Football Hall of Fame in Atlanta.
Semifinalists for the Maxwell Award will be announced Nov. 1, while the three finalists for the Maxwell Award will be unveiled on Nov. 22. The winner of the 86th Maxwell Award will be announced as part of the ESPN Home Depot College Football Awards Show held on Dec. 8. The formal presentations of the Maxwell Award will be made at the Maxwell Football Club Awards live from Atlantic City, N.J. on March 10, 2023.
NFL Hall of Fame quarterback Peyton Manning is the only Vol to ever win the Maxwell Award, doing so in 1997.
