And they beat ACC-champ Virginia Tech in the Orange Bowl. Crazy how Mangino went from Coach of the Year status to persona non grata in the coaching industry in two years...
I just read the most asinine article... i thought @Swagnificent wrote it. I mean this is the most "fukk what actually happened...let me tell you what we in Tennessee saw" shyt written.
How great can Tennessee football quarterback Joshua Dobbs be? Here are four reasons the Volunteers senior could exceed Clemson’s Deshaun Watson in 2016.
Joshua Dobbs and Deshaun Watson have many similar attributes on the surface. Both are mobile quarterbacks from Georgia. Both play for teams with orange colors in cutting-edge pro-style offenses that have spread formations. Finally, both have high expectations for this year.
After leading the Clemson Tigers to the national championship game last year, Watson naturally has much higher expectations than Dobbs. After all, Watson nearly single-handedly led the Tigers to the national title against the Alabama Crimson Tide.
While all of those things are true, there are many attributes to Dobbs’s game. Some of them are also rare attributes for a mobile quarterback.
If he can keep those attributes and fine-tune those specific weaknesses, there is a chance Dobbs plays better than Watson.
Last week, we said that to become a better quarterback, Joshua Dobbs has to show much more patience and be smarter about avoiding hits. Although those are two areas of decision-making he needs to improve on, his pass selection is a different story.
Dobbs always does a great job of making sure to find the open man and not to kill drives. As a result, he only threw five interceptions last year.
On the other hand, Deshaun Watson threw 13 interceptions. Yes, he was eight points higher in his completion percentage, but Watson clearly showed much more of a determination to make a play on anything, regardless of whether or not something is there.
That can become a problem at times, and it causes interceptions. Even in his epic national title game performance, Watson threw a crucial interception early against the Alabama Crimson Tide.
His interception there cost his team the game. His great performance would have been better without that pick.
Meanwhile, although he struggles with accuracy, Dobbs almost always picks the right person to throw the ball to. He also throws it away at the right time.
Dobbs still makes things happens with his legs, but he is also always smart about doing that as well.
His intelligence as an aerospace engineer clearly pays off in playing the probability game on the football field. That also comes in handy down the stretch of big, tough moments. And that brings us to our next reason that Dobbs could be superior to Watson.
This one comes across as a bit confusing to many. Deshaun Watson threw for 405 yards and four touchdowns against the elite Alabama Crimson Tide defense in the national championship game.
At the same time, he had 73 rushing yards.
However, Watson did have a crucial interception, as we mentioned earlier, and they still lost. In fact, Watson put up most of those stats with his team down two scores.
Meanwhile, against the Oklahoma Sooners, he only had 187 passing yards to go with a touchdown and an interception. His 145 rushing yards and one touchdown are commendable in that game as well.
In the regular season, Watson threw for 297 yards and ran for 107 against the Florida State Seminoles.
Again, these are great numbers. But Clemson only put up 23 points in that game, and the Seminoles were rebuilding.
As an SEC player, Dobbs has actually shown more consistent performances in big moments. He once led the Vols back from a two-touchdown deficit with three minutes left, and a year later he led the Vols back from a three-touchdown deficit. Those games were against the South Carolina Gamecocks and Georgia Bulldogs respectively.
Both times, he had three passing touchdowns, two rushing touchdowns, 300 passing yards, and 100 rushing yards.
Dobbs also did his part to beat the Florida Gators last year, and he had no line help while struggling against the Oklahoma Sooners and Alabama Crimson Tide. Watson had three All-American linemen protecting him.
When you break it down just by numbers, Watson has overall been a better performer in big moments. However, he had lots of help and never just willed his team to victory.
Dobbs has willed Tennessee to victory in impossible situations. That’s an advantage, and it also leads to our next point.
When you watched Deshaun Watson last year in the national championship game, you couldn’t help but praise him in how he acted alone to nearly beat the Alabama Crimson Tide.
While that is a testament to his talents, it could actually be a condemnation of his leadership.
Watson never seemed to inspire the play of any of his other teammates, and as a result he was left doing all the work by himself. The same cannot be said about Joshua Dobbs when he gets into a rhythm.
In those comebacks he led, Dobbs managed to rally the entire team, and you could see everybody step their game up. It was evident against Georgia last year when he converted a fourth and long for a touchdown.
The defense immediately came alive.
For Dobbs, everything he does is about promoting his team. Watson already has been discussed in an article about his brand…and he’s not even in the NFL yet.
That’s not to blame him, to be fair. Watson definitely earned a brand after his amazing play last year.
But it is to say that Dobbs has shown more of an ability to rally his teammates in tough situations.
Dabo Swinney and the Clemson coaching staff said as much during the offseason. They are looking for Watson to take on a more vocal role as the quarterback.
In Knoxville, Dobbs doesn’t have that problem. He’s an unquestioned leader who was unsurprisingly voted team captain.
On top of all this, though, there’s a bit of raw talent that gives Dobbs the edge as well. That brings us to our fourth point.
Despite rushing for 1,100 yards and 12 touchdowns on 207 carries on top of his 4,100 passing yards, Deshaun Watson is not as good of a runner as Joshua Dobbs.
We say that even though Dobbs only had 671 yards on 146 carries and 11 touchdowns on top of less than 2,300 yards passing. Yes, stats wise, Watson is way better.
But Watson was going up against much weaker competition all year long in an atrocious ACC, and he was padding his stats in the process. Dobbs had to deal with a brutal SEC schedule in a more rigid offense under Mike DeBord.
Still, when you look at how they run, Dobbs is better. Dobbs has shown more speed in avoiding sacks and tackles when he runs down the sideline, evidenced by the fact that he also caught a 50-yard touchdown pass and outran the Florida Gators secondary last year.
Also, Dobbs is more physical. We have already cautioned him about staying healthy and avoiding bit hits, but it can’t be denied that he’s able to run like a running back. With his thin lower body, Dobbs is deceptively strong like Tim Tebow or Dak Prescott.
Finally, and this goes back to our decision making, Dobbs has better vision as a runner too. To be able to think quick while running is still an athletic ability.
Overall, while he may not be as accurate as Deshaun Watson, Dobbs is actually the more athletic quarterback. He just doesn’t pad the same stats because Tennessee runs much more of a balanced offense under Jones.
If y'all can read this without laughing...I commend you all... lol
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when he heard
