Tennessee football: Vols top 30 players since 1998 national championship
The only quarterback to have success for Tennessee football since Erik Ainge’s departure, Joshua Dobbs deserves a ton of credit as a leader for the Vols and being one of the most exciting players ever to watch. Similar to Condredge Holloway with Bill Battle, Dobbs’s greatness delayed the inevitable firing of his head coach at the time, Butch Jones.
It’s no coincidence that the Vols’ only three winning seasons this decade have come with Dobbs at quarterback. Even more impressive, though, is the fact that Dobbs almost didn’t happen. He was the third-string quarterback in 2013 and stepped in after Justin Worley got hurt because of how bad Nathan Peterman was against the Florida Gators. In closing out the season, Dobbs went 1-3.
Riley Ferguson was to be the quarterback of the future anyway, but he transferred that offseason. The next year, Worley started again and the Vols fell to 3-4. Peterman then became the starter again, but fell behind 27-0 to the Alabama Crimson Tide. Dobbs then came in, cleaned up the mess and only loss 34-20. The next week was when the star was born.
Becoming the starter against the South Carolina Gamecocks, Dobbs led a 14-point comeback on the road with less than four minutes left in the game and then won it in overtime. He had over 300 passing yards, over 100 rushing yards and five total touchdowns in the game. That was just the start, as he led the Vols to a 4-1 record to close out the season.
The next two years, Dobbs became a star. The Vols had back to back 9-4 records and Top 25 finishes, the only ones they have had since getting rid of Phillip Fulmer. Dobbs himself would provide multiple games of over 300 passing yards and 400 yards total with five total touchdowns, both in 21-point comebacks over the Georgia Bulldogs in 2015 and the Florida Gators in 2016.
He also provided other memorable moments like the 2016 Hail Mary to beat Georgia, five total touchdowns in the Battle at Bristol and a record-setting offense down the stretch of 2016. In the end, Dobbs had the most productive season that year for a UT quarterback in terms of total yards since 1997 under Peyton Manning with 2,946 passing yards, 831 rushing yards and 40 total touchdowns.
The aerospace engineer finished his career in Knoxville completing 61.5 percent of his passes for 7,138 yards, 53 touchdowns and only 29 interceptions. Meanwhile, he rushed 438 times for 2,160 yards and 32 total touchdowns. He also caught two passes for 62 yards and two touchdowns. So yes, his level of production as a quarterback puts him in the top-10 on this list.