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QuickTake:
The former high school quarterback had to learn how to make an impact without the ball in his hands on every play, a transformation that turned the new Duck into one of college football’s most productive receivers.
It was almost too good to be true.
Two days before the start of Oregon’s training camp, new wide receiver Iverson Hooks stepped into a line the questioner couldn’t have planned any better.
“Practice!?” Hooks said. “You know? Practice?!”
Yes, Hooks is familiar with some of the highlights from the player who inspired his name: Allen Iverson, the Hall of Fame guard who became an icon with the Philadelphia 76ers.
How could he not be?
Both were undersized athletes who overcame adversity and grew accustomed to having the game run through them.
But Hooks’ path changed when he learned he didn’t always need the ball in his hands to make an impact — a lesson that helped turn a former high school quarterback into one of the most productive receivers in college football, and maybe the answer for an Oregon receiving corps looking for veteran leadership.
Hooks, to be clear, isn’t much of a basketball fan. That’s his older brother, who was playing an NBA video game while Hooks’ mother was in labor. The family hadn’t settled on a name. On the screen were Allen Iverson and Michael Jordan. Hence, Iverson Jordan Hooks.
Over time, the name began to fit.
Hooks started high school at Reeltown in Alabama before finishing at nearby Pike Road, where he was athletic, fast and relentless. He overcame ACL tears in both knees while playing quarterback and baseball. He was the kind of athlete who wanted the game in his hands, in good moments and bad.
In the seventh inning of Pike Road’s one-run loss in the 2021 state baseball championship series, Hooks drove a ball that nearly cleared the fence. He settled for a double, then was thrown out trying to steal third for the second out of the inning.
Pike Road lost 3-2.
Afterward, Pike Road baseball coach Allen Ponder asked Hooks whether he wanted to talk to the press.
“I asked him if he wanted to come up and he said, ‘Yes, I want to come up,’” Ponder told AL.com. “It’s one of those things where he understands that he made a mistake, and he wanted to come up here and talk to you guys and he wanted to be a team guy because he is a team guy first. That speaks to his character.”
Being a team guy — and winning — matters more to Hooks than anything. When he arrived at Alabama-Birmingham, he quickly learned that helping the Blazers would require him to give up some control.
He could no longer play quarterback, and he spent his first fall camp in Birmingham taking receiver reps for the first time in his career.
“I’m a little undersized, so I can’t really see over a line, you feel me?” the 5-foot-10, 175-pound Hooks said of the position change. “I just had to adjust to my ability and then still find a way to make plays.
“It was kind of hard adjusting to not being able to have the ball in your hands on every play. That used to frustrate me a little bit, but just becoming a team player, it would make me stop being so selfish. I want to win as many games as I can.”
The wins were difficult to find at UAB, which hasn’t had a winning season since 2022. But by Hooks’ fourth year in Birmingham, nobody was confusing him for a quarterback.
As a redshirt junior last year, he caught 72 passes for 927 yards and seven touchdowns. His biggest performance came against No. 22 Memphis, when he finished with 11 catches for 172 yards and three touchdowns in an upset victory. That production pushed his résumé to the top of the pile when Oregon went looking for a veteran receiver to strengthen a roster with national championship ambitions.
The Ducks had found success with similar additions before, including Malik Benson and, before him, Tez Johnson — another 5-foot-10 playmaker from Alabama. With Dakorien Moore, Jeremiah McClellan and Evan Stewart in the receiver room, Hooks didn’t come to Eugene expecting the offense to revolve around him. He said he came prepared to become whatever kind of player Oregon needed.
“Just coming from where I came from, I didn’t win too many games,” Hooks said. “I know that putting that in front of my own self goals and stuff like that, it’s better for the team than myself.”
And the better the team, the better the chance that an Iverson finally gets a ring.
