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Week 7 of the college football season featured some truly insane games, with none crazier than Tennessee’s upset win over Alabama. We’ve already touched on Vols quarterback Hendon Hooker this season, but his effort in Tennessee’s 52-49 win can’t go unrecognized.
Hooker went 21-for-30 passing against the Tide, throwing for 385 yards, five touchdowns and one interception, with three of his scores coming from 30+ yards out. We’ll talk more about another performance in this game shortly, but Hooker’s draft stock continues to rise after last Saturday’s win. In addition to pulling off the upset, he’s now firmly entrenched in the Heisman conversation, and will likely remain in the conversation barring an unexpected implosion.
Florida quarterback Anthony Richardson continued his up-and-down play in a 45-35 loss to LSU. Playing in The Swamp, Richardson threw for just 185 yards and one touchdown while rushing for another 9-109-1, but the potential first-rounder averaged 7.4 YPA on the day and completed just 60% of his passes.
Richardson continues to be a raw talent that possesses all the upside in the world but needs to put things together if he hopes to convince teams that he’s NFL-ready (or close).
With some other noteworthy performances to touch on, let’s have a look at what Week 7 offered us from a dynasty perspective.
Note: Stats and information courtesy of PFF.com, CollegeFootballData.com and Sports-Reference.com.
Jaren Hall, QB (BYU)
Passing: 349 yards, 3 TDs, 1 INT
Rushing: 4 carries, 23 yards, 0 TDs
Jaren Hall is a quarterback whose name will get lost in the sauce until the pre-draft process officially gets underway. The BYU product is currently ranked as the No. 6 quarterback of the 2023 class per NFL Mock Draft Database and is on pace for a career year after throwing for 2,583-20-5 last season.
Through seven games, Hall has amassed 1,904 yards, 17 touchdowns and three interceptions, while also rushing 27 times for an additional 141 yards.
In three games against Power Five competition, Hall has thrown for 915 yards, six touchdowns and one interception, completing 64.5% of his passes in those contests. Last week against Arkansas, despite a 52-35 loss, Hall threw for 349 yards and three scores, doing everything he could to keep the Cougars in the fight despite their defense getting bombarded all afternoon.
Hall’s third and final touchdown was his second score from 20+ yards on the afternoon. To bring the Cougars within a field goal, Hall found wide receiver Puka Nacua for a 33-yard strike late in the third quarter, but that would be as close as they’d get, as Arkansas could go on to score 14 unanswered points.
With a 4-3 record on the season, Hall and the Cougars have a solid 26-20 win over Baylor on their resume and lost by eight points on the road against Notre Dame. At best, he’s a late Day 2 prospect, but on the right team, Hall could find an opportunity to start at some point in his career.
Sean Tucker, RB (Syracuse)
Rushing: 14 carries, 98 yards, 1 TD
Receiving: 4 receptions, 14 yards, 0 TDs
We haven’t talked about Sean Tucker since Week 1, but the Syracuse product continues to put up solid numbers even as the Orange enter conference play.
In last week’s game against a stout NC State defense, Tucker managed 98 yards on 14 carries, with his longest run coming on a 38-yard burst. His lone score on the day was equally as impressive, as the junior running back broke off a 25-yard run down the left side of the field to officially put the game out of reach for the Orange.
We're #PL34SED with this 25-yd TD run by @seantucker2020
— Syracuse Football (@CuseFootball) October 15, 2022
📺 ACCN pic.twitter.com/rirMIDMxAO
Through six games, Tucker is 17th in the nation in rushing yards with a line of 122-646-6 and is 10th in yards from scrimmage with 842. His 28 broken tackles are tied for 25th, but Tucker has struggled to create yards after contact, averaging 2.74 YCO/ATT on the year after averaging 4.11 YCO/ATT in 2021 while amassing 1,014 yards after contact.
Tucker remains one of the top backs in the nation and should be a highly-coveted player in dynasty rookie drafts next season. A true three-down back, Tucker is the kind of back fantasy managers will be happy to roster if they’re unable to secure Texas’ Bijan Robinson.
Jalin Hyatt, WR (Tennessee)
Receiving: 6 receptions, 207 yards, 5 TDs
Anytime you go for 6-207-5 in a game you deserve to be talked about. If you have a game like that against Alabama, you probably deserve a statue.
Whether or not Jalin Hyatt gets a statue in the future is TBD, but we’ll at least talk him up here.
It goes without saying that Hyatt had a game for the ages in Saturday’s 52-49 upset win over Alabama. The junior receiver turned all but one of his receptions into a score, with his shortest touchdown coming from 11 yards out.
Hyatt hauled in Hendon Hooker bombs all afternoon, posting an absurd 24.3 aDOT on eight targets, with 73 of his 207 yards coming after the catch.
Jalin Hyatt: 5 catches, 194 yards, 4 touchdowns
— 247Sports (@247Sports) October 15, 2022
Hyatt is the first Tennessee player to ever catch 4 touchdowns in one game.pic.twitter.com/QJbKmWn2iV
Since the Vols lost wide receiver Cedric Tillman in Week 3 against Akron, Hyatt has stepped in to fill Tennessee’s WR1 role, and produced in a big way. Prior to his big game against Alabama -- which was the best receiving performance in Vols history -- Hyatt had already gone for 27-388-5 through five games, averaging a solid 14.4 YPR.
At 6-foot-1, 180-pounds, Hyatt reportedly possesses 4.2 speed, which we’ll likely get to see on display at the NFL Combine if he declares.
With his draft stock undeniably soaring, Hyatt throwing his hat into the 2023 NFL Draft class at the end of the season would not be surprising.
Kayshon Boutte, WR (LSU)
Receiving: 6 receptions, 115 yards, 0 TDs
Kayshon Boutte didn’t find the end zone in last week’s 45-35 win over Florida, but he did surpass 42 yards for the first time this season, and actually managed to top the century mark.
It’s hard to get excited about Boutte given his incredibly down-bad season thus far, but we’re going to do our best. Last Saturday marked the third time that Boutte saw eight or more targets in a game, and his 13.1 aDOT on the afternoon was his second-highest in a game this season.
Boutte hauled in a 40-yard reception against the Gators -- his longest catch of the season, and later helped set up an eventual LSU touchdown with a 14-yard catch in traffic.
— pickett’s pool (@PickettsPool) October 15, 2022
Boutte has now caught 23 passes for 245 yards and one touchdown on the season, averaging a career-low 10.7 YPR. He deserves a bit of a break for the awful quarterback play LSU has dealt with this season, but hopefully last week’s game against Florida signals a strong second half for the junior receiver.