Tennessee quarterback Joshua Dobbs (11) is surrounded by Gamecock defenders. The South Carolina Gamecocks visited the Tennessee Volunteers in SEC football action November 7, 2015.KNOXVILLE -- If Josh Dobbs is not 100 percent healthy, he's not admitting it.
The number of hits Tennessee's quarterback has taken this season, his first full one as the starter, add up over the course of nine games, and it may have been why the Volunteers shied away from running him more in Saturday's win against South Carolina.
When Dobbs did take off, mostly on scrambles, he didn't look the same as he did on some of his runs at Kentucky last week.
Asked twice on Monday if he was "banged up," as head coach Butch Jones put it after the game, Dobbs shrugged off that notion.
"I wasn't banged up," he said. "I feel good. I played well as well."
"I'm perfectly fine," he later added.
You wouldn't expect Dobbs, who is 10-5 as a starter the past two seasons, to admit he was hurting or needed a week off to heal the bumps and bruises he's certainly acquired over the course of the season.
Tennessee quarterback Joshua Dobbs (11) scrambles for extra yardage. The South Carolina Gamecocks visited the Tennessee Volunteers in SEC football action November 7, 2015."We don't want that as offensive linemen, to have your quarterback banged up, but with the way our offense works and how Josh runs the ball, he's not going down easy," left tackle Kyler Kerbyson said.
"He's going down with a fight. He's a great football player, and he understands that's what happens in football. I think his pride and his competitiveness won't let him ever get off the field, so I'm really proud of what he's done."
Fortunately for Tennessee and Dobbs, though, the schedule is providing a late-season break in the form of North Texas, a 1-8 team from Conference USA. The Mean Green have been playing for weeks with an interim coach. Those eight losses were by 18, 14, 46, 35, 59, 27, 17 and 43 points.
The Vols opened as a 40.5-point favorite.
Jones also downplayed any potential injury to Dobbs, who only took over as the starter late in the season his freshman and sophomore years.
If there's any notion of resting Dobbs with the stingy of defenses of Missouri and Vanderbilt left on the schedule, the Vols predictably aren't discussing it publicly.
"He was banged up a little bit but gutted through it," Jones said. "(It's) nothing that he hasn't been doing all year. He'll be fine for the game. He'll practice today, but Josh Dobbs is a very tough-minded individual."
Tennessee running back Alvin Kamara prepares to take a handoff from quarterback Quinten Dormady during the Volunteers' rout of Western Carolina last month at Neyland Stadium. Kamara, who began his college career at the University of Alabama, returns to Tuscaloosa this weekend as a member of the opposing team.Either way Saturday's homecoming game should feature plenty of Quinten Dormady, the freshman backup.
He played about two-and-a-half quarters and finished 6-of-9 passing for 93 yards and a touchdown against Western Carolina in September, and the Vols would like to get him a similar workload against North Texas.
Dormady played late in wins against Bowling Green and Kentucky, but he mostly handed off as the Vols chose to run out the clock.
"We would like to (get him work)," Jones said. "That's our plan, but that's our plan every week. This game is a very, very big game for us, because it's the next game, and that's not coach-speak. It's hard to win in college football. ... It's a week-to-week season, and we have to get ready to play our best game.
"Quinten continues to grow and develop and mature. Obviously you learn through game live repetitions and your repetitions in practice. We would like for him to gain some of those repetitions, but we'll see how the game goes. We do have faith and we do have confidence in him because we see the progress."
Contact Patrick Brown at pbrown@timesfreepress.com.