Tennessee QB Joshua Dobbs Emerging as True Leader in Spring Practice
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — The smallest display of emotion told the biggest story.
As Tennessee quarterback Joshua Dobbs watched himself on screen in a darkened Anderson Training Center meeting room with offensive coordinator Mike DeBord and his fellow signal-callers, he saw himself throw a touchdown pass in short-yardage action.
When Pig Howard crossed the goal line, the Dobbs on the practice video put his arms beside his helmet and raised them upward in celebration. He then sprinted to where his teammates congregated.
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"Is that some emotion?" DeBord asked.
"A little bit," answered a chuckling Dobbs.
"Well," DeBord countered, "it's good to see."
Indeed, as the 6'3", 212-pound rising junior takes the next steps toward being a "CEO quarterback," as head coach Butch Jones calls it, the largest leap is loosening up.
For somebody such as Dobbs, who already takes a business-like, almost robotic approach to the game, it's difficult sometimes to just unleash the emotions.
In one sense, the even-keeled mentality is a strong quality for a quarterback. However, a team sometimes needs to see its leader get fired up. His teammates need to see him lead so they can follow.
Dobbs' growth as a quarterback is evident from the moment the practice begins. You notice the muscle mass he's put on. The second he drops back, you see how much improved his footwork and mechanics are, positively affecting his throwing consistency and the zip on his passes.
But when Jones is asked where Dobbs has made his biggest strides, it's none of those exterior aesthetic improvements.
"Being more vocal, more expression of himself," the head coach said. "As a quarterback, you're always going to be cool, calm and collected, but sometimes, they also need to see a little bit of energy in terms of really true excitement. That's what we've been on him about. We call it touchdown energy. When we score, we expect that quarterback to be the first in the end zone to congratulate that guy who got the ball in the checkerboards.
"I see Josh making tremendous strides in this."
From On-the-Job to Offseason Training
During the 2014 season, nobody expected Dobbs would be in a high-pressure situation. With senior Justin Worley winning the starting job and Nathan Peterman seemingly entrenched as a backup, it initially appeared last season would be a learning year for the sophomore.
But Worley went down for the season against Ole Miss, and Peterman was ineffective. So Dobbs took over a few series into the Alabama game.
He never looked back.
| 2013 | 1-3 | 695 | 189 | 884 | 3 | 6 |
| 2014 | 4-1 | 1,206 | 469 | 1,675 | 17 | 6 |
At times, he looked like a star…even if it was mostly sheer natural ability.
Ever since season's end, Dobbs' development has been all about polishing his natural ability as well as growing more vocal as a leader. For an aerospace engineering major who has to balance a ridiculous work load with everything it takes to be a major-college quarterback, it's not always an easy task.
Taking a calculated approach to his full slate of activities helps Dobbs to manage everything.
But those around UT who know leadership qualities best—such as rising senior and team spiritual cog Curt Maggitt—have seen the signal-caller make a monumental move.
He said Dobbs already leads by example, but now, he's doing so in other ways as well.
"I think Dobbs is a phenomenal leader, and that just comes off his influence," Maggitt said. "Dobbs doesn't even have to say anything. Everybody just looks at him like, 'What are we doing? What's up, Dobbs?' Looking to him for those answers. I think this offseason, he's taken that step to holding guys accountable, to being that vocal leader.
"I think his play, the way he carries himself off the field, the way he carries himself on the field and how he plays for his teammates and his work ethic, I think all that speaks for itself. Dobbs is not a bragging-type guy, a flashy guy. He wants to get the job done and do it for the team, and I think everyone knows it."
Those seeds were sown last year as ESPN cameras caught Dobbs rallying his team on the sideline during what eventually became a comeback win over South Carolina. He continued that maturation throughout the season's final stretch.
However, tight end Ethan Wolf has heard the difference in Dobbs much more this spring.
"He's going to tell you if you do something wrong, but he'll be the first to admit if he does something wrong," Wolf said. "If he throws a bad ball, he'll say, 'Hey, that's my bad.' So, we all respect Josh and want to play as hard as we can for him. That makes you want to play hard for him."
People are continually amazed by the non-football workload he takes on, a slate that this spring includes a material mechanics class as well as a dynamics class and another engineering course.
Having a quarterback who's nearly always more intelligent than anybody in the room is a huge asset most of the time.
At one point during a recent quarterbacks meeting, DeBord tried to find a certain play to run back on the screen from his computer. After several fruitless attempts to find that exact play, Dobbs got up from his seat to help his coordinator locate it.
Dobbs double-clicked the play the coach was looking for right away. "It's great having a smart quarterback," DeBord said to the room, and the other QBs laughed.
"The curriculum he's in takes great effort, it takes great commitment and the ability to focus and learn," Jones said. "Everything is about being able to retain information. That's one thing about Josh, you only have to tell him once and he gets it.
"So, yeah, I think the academic courses, studying engineering and everything that he's going through, I do believe that helps him on the field."
This May, Dobbs will take a brief break from the gridiron, interning at Pratt & Whitney, an aerospace company in West Palm Beach, Florida. There, he'll work on testing and collecting data on various airplane engine types from military to commercial jets.
Then, it's back to football. For now, it's balancing spring class loads with football and team meetings.
As Jones addressed the team recently, Dobbs sat in the front row in the very center seat, taking copious notes as if he were a midterm freshman. A couple of hours later, he parked directly in front of the screen in the quarterback film room, watching practice footage and solving what he saw in coverage like a differential equation.
The study habits have him on the cusp of breaking out on the football field.
"I'm very comfortable," Dobbs said. "I feel like since I've arrived on campus, that's been my strong suit being a leader of this team, and I've definitely embraced that even more coming into this spring and in this offseason. So, it's definitely growing, and the team is definitely moving in the right direction.
"I've always been myself since I got on campus, so I feel like I was a leader before I got here; I've been ever since I've gotten here, and I will continue to."
The DeBord Factor
Dobbs attributes getting every meaningful repetition as aiding his development. Also, it can't be discounted how well he has hit it off with DeBord in the months since the new offensive coordinator came on board.
Dobbs sat in on the first weekend of DeBord's interviews when Jones was looking for a new offensive coordinator.
One night following a session, DeBord told Dobbs after film study of the quarterback that he needed to work on stabilizing his lead foot to keep it from pivoting when he throws. He also was standing too wide, causing him to false step sometimes as he threw.
This was not yet his offensive coordinator, but it didn't matter. These were tips that could help him get better, so they were things he took to heart.
Like any good leader, Dobbs went to work on tweaks that would make him a better player.
"Coach DeBord had a plan right away how he was going to develop him through video study," Jones said. "The great thing is he gave it to Josh, and Josh went and worked on it on his own.
"Through these spring ball practices, we've really worked on his footwork, the overall accuracy, the ability to make the routine throw and the consistency. It's all based on fundamentals, footwork and especially lower-body position. We've worked exceptionally hard on that. Coach DeBord had a plan from Day 1, and I think that's part of that trust, too. I think Josh feels the improvement in the things Coach DeBord is telling him. So, that builds trust as well."
Dobbs concurred. Not only have he and DeBord built a strong relationship, but Dobbs has seen the benefits of his mechanical adjustments produce on-field results.
"He's definitely helped me make improvements in my game this spring," the quarterback said. "[The footwork] was his big thing that he came in and focused on. That was his big focus point with me from Day 1. So, I took that and ran with it, and obviously I've improved it this spring."
With the improvement comes a greater self-belief. He's always known he can play on this level, and the raw ability he's shown when he's on the field could be glimpses of the type of player he can be.
When it all comes together, the Vols could have a star behind center.
The difference in just a few short months is a reason to be excited for the offense's potential in 2015.
"Josh has really started to elevate his game," Jones said. "He's still not a finished product. But I see tremendous strides from Year 1 and even Year 2 in his leadership.
"He's Josh Dobbs. He's never too high, never too low, very, very consistent, very humble, very eager, very driven. I think the biggest difference in Josh is confidence. He's had some success now, the players believe in him, and I think he's getting more reps than he's ever received, so you can see the maturity, you can see the learning curve, you can see the growth continue to manifest each and every day."
Quotes and observations obtained firsthand. Brad Shepard covers SEC football and is the Tennessee Lead Writer for Bleacher Report. Follow Brad on Twitter @Brad_Shepard.
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