Josh Malone (3) sets off his 4th quarter touchtown run after catching a Joshua Dobbs’s pass. The Florida Gators visited the Tennessee Volunteers in a important SEC football contest at Neyland Stadium on September 24, 2016.KNOXVILLE – When his team has needed him the most, Josh Dobbs has delivered for Tennessee.
The play of the senior quarterback is one of the primary reasons the Volunteers are unbeaten and ranked in the top 10 heading into this afternoon’s clash at Texas A&M.
At moments in the comeback wins against Florida and Georgia the past two weeks, Dobbs put his team on his back and willed them into the lead or back into the game with his moxie and either a timely throw or a fearless run.
“He’s calm, cool and collected,” guard Jack Jones said this week.
“A couple of those games, we’ve gotten down early and he’s brought us all together on the sideline, the whole offense, and told us to come on and keep chipping away, keep chipping away, we’re going to get them. He never loses his composure, and that’s really awesome to have back there, too, because he is a great leader.
“Having that calm, cool, collected mentality, if we didn’t have that we might be in a different position right now.”
Instead Tennessee is in control of its own destiny in the SEC East Division and beyond, and the Vols will need Dobbs at his best again against the Aggies with star running back Jalen Hurd joining the defensive trio of Cameron Sutton, Jalen Reeves-Maybin and Darrin Kirkland Jr. on the injury list.
Dobbs hasn’t been perfect, but it’s hard to deny he’s been Tennessee’s most valuable player through five games despite strong competition from defensive end Derek Barnett, who’s galvanized a shorthanded defense to turn in valiant second-half performances against two division rivals.
“I think a sign of any good team is you may have to tailor what you’re doing offensively or defensively if you lose a key player,” defensive coordinator Bob Shoop said. “Maybe we can’t do exactly what I had initially envisioned, but then all of a sudden there’s other ways we can be successful.
“That’s where we have to be creative as a staff, and the players have to buy in and execute whatever they’re asked to do in that situation.”
In situations when Tennessee’s offense needed a spark, Dobbs, with help from his supporting cast, made it happen.
In the second-half scoring spree against Florida, he hung in the pocket the best he has in his career and delivered four touchdown passes with pressure in his face or a hard hit coming from a defender.
With the Vols needing a score before halftime at Georgia, Dobbs converted a third-and-15 with a gutsy scramble ending with hard hits from a pair of defenders, and three plays later he scored when he made a dive for the pylon and crashed into a rolling xylophone as Georgia’s band waited just beyond the sideline to perform its halftime show.
“I’m just very competitive,” Dobbs said. “I take the field to win. That’s my mentality. I’m going to do whatever it takes, whether it’s doing different things in my play, pushing my teammates, holding them to a higher standard – whatever it really takes, I’m going to do that and push the team to win. That’s kind of my mindset: Whatever it takes, I’m willing to do.”
His will and determination aren’t lost on his teammates.
“Josh is just a player,” Jones said. “He’s one of those guys who would do anything for me and I would for him. I just know when we roll the balls out, he’s going to play football. That’s one of those guys you like, you like protecting back there and you like knowing that he’s going to give it everything he has.”
Dobbs credited his father, Robert, for instilling in him the poise needed to play quarterback. He recalled playing the position too emotionally in middle school, and over time he’s learned to turn his focus from one play to the next. It’s allowed him to become the calm leader Tennessee has needed in the face of double-digit deficits this season.
“There’s only one person that can rattle Joshua Dobbs, and that’s (his mother) Stephanie Dobbs,” Vols coach Butch Jones said. “That’s probably the only person. I have a lot of respect for his parents, and I know they mean the world to him. Josh has been a straight-lined individual and very, very consistent. He doesn’t get rattled.”
With a poised Dobbs at the helm, Tennessee is capable of winning any game it plays.
“He looks for the positive in everything,” wide receiver Josh Malone said, “and just stays calm.”
Contact Patrick Brown at pbrown@timesfreepress.com