Tim Tebow, Cam Newton, Johnny Manziel; just to name a few of the great dual threat QBs to run and throw their way into SEC history.
The next one is Joshua Dobbs from the Tennessee. Dobbs is definitely the most under-the-radar of the four quarterbacks, but what he will do on the field this fall will be nothing short of great. If all things turn out right for the Vols, he might get trip to the Big Apple in early December.
He will be the starting quarterback of the best team in the SEC East and it will be his senior season. He is the most experienced returning SEC quarterback. So this year could be the year of Dobbs in the SEC.
Look at what he did in his junior season. He himself accounted for 27 Vols touchdowns last fall and he only threw 5 interceptions the whole season. He will be the captain of very good offense at Tennessee. The Vols will have one of the best QB-RB duos in the nation with Dobbs and running back Jalen Hurd. He and Hurd together rushed for 1,959 yards and 23 touchdowns and with another year under their belts, they will make some noise on the national level.
But one unknown Power 5 assistant says Dobbs is a quarterback that can’t throw the ball well and that coach might be right, but many of the great quarterbacks in the SEC were quarterbacks that you wanted throwing the ball. Quarterbacks like Tim Tebow and Cam Newton were “running quarterbacks” but they got the job done and done at a high level. And Dobbs is no joke. The man has thrown 642 passes at Tennessee. He has only thrown 17 interceptions. That tells me Dobbs is very smart with the football. This man is smart, as he is an aerospace engineering major. So football decisions are a piece of cake for this quarterback.
When I think of Dobbs, the first game I think about is 2014 game against the South Carolina Gamecocks at Williams-Brice on Blackout Night. This was back when many people didn’t beat USC at Willy B. The crowd was rocking, it was at night, the fans were going crazy. I was there, and the atmosphere was against Tennessee and Dobbs, but Dobbs didn’t care.
The Vols were down by 7 going into the fourth and what does Dobbs and offense do? They go and score 21 points in the fourth quarter. When it counted the most, Dobbs marched 85 yards in less than 90 seconds and scored throws the game-tying touchdown. In OT, the Vols stunned the Gamecocks in Columbia. Dobbs accounted for 5 touchdowns, 301 passing yards, and 166 rushing yards.
On that night, two years ago I knew that he was going to be something special.