University of Tennessee Athletics
Dobbs Leads Defining Drive
November 02, 2014 | Football
By Brian Rice COLUMBIA, S.C.
UTSports.com
Trailing by seven, Tennessee had 1:23 to cover 85 yards. As it turned out, they did not need quite all of it.
Rewind a couple of minutes of game time and even the most die-hard of Tennessee fans would be hard-pressed to believe what would unfold. The Vols trailed South Carolina by 14 after giving up a 70-yard touchdown to Brandon Wilds. It looked like the game would end the way so many have in recent years: Close, but a little bit short.
But the Vols fought back, as Joshua Dobbs calmly drove his team down the field, never facing third down on a 10-play, 75-yard drive that the sophomore QB finished himself on a 3-yard TD run.
"He's bringing something that a lot of people haven't seen out of this program," Jalen Hurd said of Dobbs after the game. "He's bringing everything to the table."
A failed onside kick may have taken the wind out of the sails of a previous team, but not this one. Tennessee had all three timeouts and used them after each play of a three-and-out highlighted by Derek Barnett's sack of Dylan Thompson that forced the USC punt.
The odds were still stacked against UT. The situation was a hostile environment, 85 yards to go and no timeouts to help manage the clock or any miscues.
"We huddled up and Alex Ellis gave us a little speech," Dobbs said of the scene before the final drive of regulation. "He told us we had worked too hard for this. We went out there and executed, the offensive line, the wide receivers, everybody executed."
The execution started on the first play. Dobbs found Alton Howard for a 31-yard gain that took the Volunteers out of the shadow of their own end zone. Then it was a 9-yard swing pass to Hurd, who smartly stepped out of bounds, though a yard short of the first down. No problem, Dobbs scrambled for eight yards on the next play for the first down in South Carolina territory.
On first down, UT went quickly back to the air. Dobbs hit Howard again, this time for 18 yards to move Tennessee into the red zone at the USC 19. He found Hurd again out of the backfield for 10 yards and another first down with 19 seconds to play.
"In practice, we do a lot of two-minute drills," Dobbs said. "We just referred back to our game plan and the situation, that we didn't have any timeouts and how many yards we needed to get. We needed a touchdown and we were able to execute and take what the defense gave us and move down the field."
An incomplete pass set up 2nd-and-goal. Dobbs took the snap and found no one open. Rolling to his right around a block from Jacob Gilliam, Dobbs saw Jason Croom flash open in the end zone, one thought in his mind.
"Just put it on him," Dobbs said. "Don't miss."
He didn't. A 9-yard touchdown to tie the game. Eleven seconds to spare.
"That was my third read in the progression," Dobbs said. "Gilliam was able to do a great job of getting the defender up the field, so I was able to get under him. Croom was able to get open, he ran a great route and made a great catch."
Hurd was not surprised, either.
"We practice it every single week, the one-minute drill," he said. "We went out there and executed it, there's not much else to say about that."
The Vols still had an overtime to play, one that was defined more by the defense's two sacks to push South Carolina effectively out of field goal range. But the final 45-42 margin never happens without those nine plays over those 85 yards.
Then, jubilation.
"He just gave me a hug," Dobbs said of his moment with head coach Butch Jones after the game, "and told me how proud he was."
