Jalen Hurd and Joshua Dobbs are the two Volunteers on the 2016 Maxwell Award Watch List. But Tennessee football is too loaded with players to have a winner.
For the second year in a row, Jalen Hurd and Joshua Dobbs were announced on the Maxwell Award preseason watch list Tuesday. Joining three players on the Bednarik Award watch list, the news has Vols fans everywhere excited.
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Once the season begins, if things go well, there will be Heisman talk in Knoxville surrounding these two guys and others on the team as well.
Not to rain on anybody’s parade, but we should forget that talk now. If an offensive player on the Vols is even considered for the best player of the year at the end of the season, it might mean things are a disappointment.
What we have learned from Butch Jones in three years in Knoxville is that he loves balance. He will go six-deep at receiver in any game, split reps between backs, and use his quarterback to throw, catch and receive.
He’ll use his receivers to run as well.
This year, despite the loaded talent that Dobbs has to work with, he won’t have enough opportunities to rack up stats to win any award if things go the way they should.
Jones and the coaching staff are hoping that an elite defense gives them lots of short fields. They also are looking for an elite return game to take possessions away from the offense.
And when they are on offense, half of the success will be the running game between Hurd and Alvin Kamara.
That brings us to our next point.
As unlikely as it is that Dobbs will win a postseason award, it is even more unlikely that Hurd will.
In a two-back system, Hurd is one of three runners when you add Kamara and Dobbs. He is also never going to be used on special teams because he’s more of a workhorse back.
But although he is a workhorse back, it’s pretty clear based on what happened last year that Kamara will be used on the big plays. On a perfect day, Hurd gets over 100 yards on 20 carries and sets up Kamara for 100 yards on 10 carries with two touchdowns.
That’s not going to be Maxwell or Heisman material, even if he is the best player in the country.
So while it’s exciting to talk about Hurd and Dobbs as postseason award winners, and while they may be good enough to win them, they just won’t have enough chances to rack up the right amount of stats to win them.
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Tennessee is a team of no stars, mainly because everybody can be a star. The last time they had that was 1998. And that turned out pretty well.