He had that big receiving TD as well and had two runs over 40 yards. That with his o-line doing a horrible job protecting him. UT offense last year him and Jalen Hurd. How many teams in the SEC would he not start in right now? I can't think of many
Our receiving corp was also devastated by injuries and dismissal.
- Marquez North was supposed to be our #1 receiver. He injured his knee in fall camp and was never the same all year. Finished the season with only 7 catches and was in and out of the lineup every other week.
- Pig Howard was supposed to be our #2 receiver. He was dismissed after week 2 for repeatedly failing drug tests.
- Jason Croom was supposed to be our #4 receiver. He suffered a knee injury in bowl practice the year before and missed the entire season.
The only receiver in our original starting lineup to play consistently last year was sophomore Josh Malone.
Because of all the injuries and dismissal, we were forced to start 2 true freshmen at wide receiver for several games. One of them, Jauan Jennings, was converted from QB which he played in the spring. The other true freshmen, Preston Williams, while a talented recruit which several sites rated as a 5 star, suffered an ACL tear in November of his senior year of high school and missed all of fall camp with an issue over his ACT score. Thus he played last year less than a year after ACL surgery and without any training camp. Needless to say he was rusty and out of rhythm.
So as you can see the lack of quality experienced wide receivers was a huge reason for Dobbs struggles throwing the ball last year. The guy can throw. It was the guys around him that failed.