This week, ESPN treated a couple of former Tennessee Vols quarterbacks with extreme disdain.
When ESPN.com’s Bill Connelly listed the top 80 college football quarterbacks since 2000, he did not include any former Tennessee Volunteers.
Three previous Vols quarterbacks stand out as being among the top 80 college football quarterbacks since 2000. And that Connelly left out all of them is astounding.
To begin with, he overlooked Hendon Hooker, the most recent outstanding quarterback for Tennessee.
When counting his time at Virginia Tech, Hooker ran for 2,083 yards and 25 touchdowns while passing for 8,974 yards, 80 touchdowns, and 12 interceptions (Connelly included transfers and their career stats on his list).
Inexplicably, Hooker missed the top 80, while Iowa’s Brad Banks was included after a single strong season that was not nearly as outstanding as Hooker’s 2022 campaign at Tennessee (2,573 passing yards, 26 passing touchdowns, five interceptions, and five rushing touchdowns).
Josh Dobbs, a former quarterback for Tennessee, was another player Connelly overlooked.
During his tenure at Knoxville, Dobbs ran for 2,160 yards and 32 rushing touchdowns (he also had two receiving touchdowns) and tossed for 7,138 yards, 53 touchdowns, and 29 interceptions.
Rather than Dobbs, Connelly selected players like David Carr of Fresno State, who passed for 300 yards more than Dobbs but scored 13 fewer touchdowns and wasn’t nearly as effective with his legs.
Connelly’s failure to include former Vols quarterback Casey Clausen—one of the most underappreciated performers in college football history—may have been his greatest error.
Clausen won some significant games during his tenure at Tennessee, passing for 9,707 yards and 75 touchdowns (with 31 interceptions) in addition to six rushing touchdowns.
Connelly’s list as a whole is enjoyable to peruse through the years. However, it is absurd to leave out even one of the three Tennessee quarterbacks listed above.
