Spirited contest: Dobbs delivers under pressure in Vols' spring finale

KNOXVILLE -- Quinten Dormady laid down the marker and, for a brief moment, Josh Dobbs' hold on the starting quarterback position for Tennessee looked to be tenuous.

OK, not really.

It didn't keep Dobbs from going out, amid whatever pressure was on him from his head coach and the 60,000-plus fans inside Neyland Stadium, and making sure he bettered the freshman in the quarterback challenge portion of Tennessee's Orange and White Game on Saturday afternoon.

"Me and Quinten had a good little finale to it," the rising junior joked after he edged Dormady by looping a pass off the rim of a large trash can -- the final target in a series of them -- from 30 yards away.

"I was going to win it, no worries."

Tennessee quarterback Joshua Dobbs throws during warm ups before a game against Missouri in Knoxville in this Nov. 22, 2014, file photo.

With an unofficial total of 16 players, many of them likely starters, watching from the sideline in T-shirts and shorts, Saturday was never going to be a good indicator of what to expect from the Volunteers when the 2015 season arrives.

Some of Tennessee's best players were able to flash their ablities, though.

In a sense, that part of Saturday's glorified practice, with Jones, microphone in hand, sometimes resembling a ringmaster at the circus rather than an SEC football coach, was fitting.

The Vols believe they have caught up with their conference peers from a talent standpoint heading into Jones's third season, though he is quick to point out Tennessee still lacks the required depth to become elite.

"We don't have the competitive depth that the premier teams have," he said. "Are we getting there? Yes, but we still have a long ways to go."

That path is shorter thanks to players such as Dobbs, running back Jalen Hurd, linebacker Jalen Reeves-Maybin and cornerback Cam Sutton -- a quartet of established players who, like up-and-coming talents including safety Evan Berry and receiver Josh Malone, all had their moments of brilliance Saturday.

Dobbs tossed passes of 37 and 31 yards to Johnathon Johnson and Pig Howard and threw a dart to tight end Ethan Wolf for a 14-yard touchdown.

The University of Tennessee's Jauan Jennings (15) looks for an open teammate during the Dish Orange & White Game in Knoxville on Saturday, April 25, 2015. Final score was Orange 54, White 44.

Hurd rumbled into the open field for a 26-yard gain on the first of his three carries.

Reeves-Maybin looked like he did in the TaxSlayer Bowl, when he had a career-high 13 tackles, by often showing up near the ball and earning two sacks.

Sutton basically intercepted a pitch on a double reverse and turned it into a defensive touchdown.

"You try to have a great grasp of where your football team is after 15 practices, but it's really hard because you take those (missing) individuals off the field and we're a different football team," Jones said.

"What we really had to concentrate on is really the individual improvement with everyone in our football program. It was a great illustration, or a great opportunity, for players to put their identity on video and to prove why they should be playing."

Jones will meet with the team this afternoon and individually with players in the coming weeks to set the stage for an important summer, when the Vols become a player-led team this summer.

Jones probably feels he's leaving his team in pretty good hands.

The University of Tennessee's Alvin Kamara (6) runs the ball during the Dish Orange & White Game in Knoxville on Saturday, April 25, 2015. Final score was Orange 54, White 44.

"It's the care factor," Sutton said. "Guys want to be out there. Guys love this game, and they don't take it for granted. You see that out on the field. They're energized, they're passionate, jumping around.

"A lot of guys are eager off the field, grinding in the weight room and even in the film room, watching film late at night, early in the morning, with the team, just trying to progress and get better overall."

In the last six months, Dobbs went from a redshirting third-stringer to the face of the program. A great quarterback can be a difference-maker in today's college football, and thus Dobbs is the reason Tennessee will enter the 2015 season with greater expectations and greater hopes that it can take the next step. The Vols, more or less, will be his team.

"The players around him, they have great confidence in him," Jones said. "The mark of great players is they elevate other players around them. They bring them along, and Josh is starting to do that.

"Is he a finished product? Absolutely not. Does he still need consistency? Yes, but I like where he's going."

For Dobbs, spring practice always was about developing further into the leader of this team and fine-tuning the details of his personal game.

"I challenged this offense to not dwell on the past, but continue moving forward," Dobbs said. "Obviously everyone had a big high coming off the TaxSlayer Bowl game. My goal with this offense was to push them every day to keep them from taking a step back (and) continue moving forward and improve. We did that, which shows the guys are ready to get better.

"The guys know what's at stake coming into next season."

It's more than what was at stake when Dobbs took aim at those trash cans.

Contact Patrick Brown at pbrown@timesfreepress.com.