Tennessee quarterback Hendon Hooker tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee during Saturday’s 63-38 loss to South Carolina and will miss the remainder of the season.
Team officials feared the worst Saturday after Hooker was injured in the fourth quarter, and the school announced the news Sunday.
“Hendon and the Hooker family appreciate all of your prayers and support,” the team said in a post on Twitter. “Hendon’s incredible journey has been defined by faith, perseverance and strength. Obstacles have never stood in the way on his path to greatness. Forever a Tennessee legend and the ultimate teammate, we know Hendo will come back stronger than ever as he embarks on a promising NFL career. Thank you, Hendo.”
Hooker, a 24-year-old senior, was one of the favorites for the Heisman Trophy for much of this season. He suffered the non-contact injury while rolling left on an option play, and his leg seemed to get stuck in the turf at Williams-Brice Stadium. Hooker lost control of the ball and immediately went to the ground. He was helped off the field and then limped gingerly to the locker room with the help of the training staff.
A two-year starter for the Vols, Hooker was a driving force in Tennessee’s turnaround under second-year coach Josh Heupel after transferring from Virginia Tech. He passed for 3,135 yards and 27 touchdowns and threw just two interceptions this season. He ranks ninth nationally in total offense (and first in the SEC) with an average of 324.1 yards per game.
A year ago, in his first season at Tennessee, Hooker won the starting job in Week 3 and finished with 2,945 passing yards and 31 touchdowns while throwing just three interceptions. He also rushed for nine touchdowns.
Heupel told ESPN earlier this month that Hooker was playing as efficiently as any quarterback he’d ever been around.
“It’s fun to watch, how everyone else rallies around him and the command he has out there of our offense,” Heupel said. “Sometimes he makes it look easy, but it’s his attention to detail, his work ethic and competitive spirit that make him so special. He’s somebody they’re going to remember around here for a long time.”
Hooker was the heartbeat of a Tennessee team that started out 8-0 and was ranked No. 1 in the first College Football Playoff rankings. But the Vols lost that next week to Georgia on the road and then Saturday to the Gamecocks.
With Hooker sidelined, Tennessee will turn to Joe Milton III at quarterback Saturday against Vanderbilt. Milton, a transfer from Michigan, started in the first two games a year ago for the Vols before Hooker beat him out for the job. Milton finished the game against South Carolina after Hooker was injured and threw a 21-yard touchdown pass to Cedric Tillman in the final minutes of the game.
The Penguins’ captain tied Hall of Famer Joe Sakic at 1,641 points with an assist on Bryan Rust‘s first-period goal. Crosby then moved past Sakic with an assist on Drew O’Connor‘s sixth goal of the season later in the period as the Penguins raced to a 4-1 advantage.
Crosby’s 12th goal 5:42 into the second put the Penguins up 5-1, providing some welcome wiggle room for a team that has struggled to hold multiple-goal leads this season.
The next name ahead of Crosby on the career scoring list is none other than Penguins icon Mario Lemieux, who had 1,723 points.
“I’m running out of superlatives [about Crosby],” Penguins coach Mike Sullivan told reporters after the game. “What he’s accomplishing, first of all, his body of work in the league, his legacy that has been built to this point, speaks for itself. He’s the consummate pro. He just represents our sport, the league, the Pittsburgh Penguins in such a great way.
“He just carries himself with so much grace and humility and integrity. And he’s a fierce competitor on the ice.”
Rust also had a goal and two assists for Pittsburgh, which snapped a three-game losing streak by beating the Oilers for the first time since Dec. 20, 2019.
“For us, that was our goal — to be on our toes, be all over them, be on top of them, because they’re very fast, a skilled team,” Rust told reporters after the game. “I think just a result of that was us being able to get some offense.”
McDavid finished with three assists. Leon Draisaitl scored twice to boost his season total to an NHL-best 31, but the Penguins beat Stuart Skinner four times in the first 14 minutes. Skinner settled down to finish with 21 saves but it wasn’t enough as the Penguins ended Edmonton’s four-game winning streak.
TAKEAWAYS
Oilers: Their attention to detail in the first period was shaky. Though Skinner wasn’t at his best, the Penguins also had little trouble generating chances.
Penguins: Pittsburgh remains a work in progress at midseason but showed it can compete with the league’s best.
UP NEXT
Edmonton finishes a four-game trip at Chicago on Saturday. The Penguins continue a five-game homestand Saturday against Ottawa.
ST. PAUL, Minn. — The Minnesota Wild have added defensemen Jonas Brodin and Brock Faber to their list of key injured players, leaving them out of the lineup for their game against Colorado on Thursday night.
Brodin’s status is day to day. He has a lower-body injury from blocking a shot late in the 6-4 win over St. Louis on Tuesday night. Wild coach John Hynes had no update after the team’s morning skate on Thursday on the timetable for the return of Faber, who has an upper-body injury from an elbow he took from Blues forward Jake Neighbours at the end of his first shift.
The Wild already were missing captain Jared Spurgeon (lower body), who is expected to be out for another week or two after taking a slew foot from Nashville forward Zachary L’Heureux in their game on Dec. 31. That leaves Minnesota without three of its top four defensemen. Jake Middleton just returned from a 10-game absence because of an upper-body injury.
The Wild also have been without star left wing Kirill Kaprizov (lower body), who missed his seventh straight game on Thursday. Kaprizov, who is tied for fourth in the NHL with 23 goals and ninth in the league with 50 points, has skated on the last two days and could return soon.
The Columbus Blue Jackets placed forward Sean Monahan on injured reserve Thursday because of an upper body injury sustained in the 4-3 shootout win at Pittsburgh on Tuesday.
Adam Fantilli is expected to move up to center the top line when the Blue Jackets host the Seattle Kraken on Thursday.
“Guys have watched how [Monahan] conducts himself, and hopefully they try to do the exact same thing,” coach Dean Evason said Thursday. “Our bench is calm in large part because of him up front and [defenseman Zach Werenski] on the back end. They’re both very calming influence players, but we have other guys that do that as well.
“But if the guys that are playing in tonight’s hockey game have learned anything from ‘Monny,’ it’s that he’s even-keeled. He doesn’t get too high, too low, all those clichés. He just goes about his business. We expect our team to do that here tonight.”
In a corresponding move, the Blue Jackets added rookie forward Owen Sillinger on an emergency recall from the AHL’s Cleveland Monsters.
Monahan, 30, has 41 points (14 goals, 27 assists), 14 penalty minutes and a plus-17 rating in 41 games this season. He ranks second on the team in plus/minus rating and third in goals, assists and points.
He has 579 career points (258 goals, 321 assists) in 805 games with the Calgary Flames (2013-22), Montreal Canadiens (2022-24), Winnipeg Jets (2024) and Blue Jackets, who signed him as a free agent in July. The Flames selected him sixth overall in the 2013 NHL draft.
Sillinger, 27, is on a one-year, two-way NHL/AHL contract with the Blue Jackets. He has eight goals and 17 assists with 18 penalty minutes in 34 games with Cleveland this season.
