How Joshua Dobbs is trying to help prepare Joe Milton, just like Peyton Manning helped him
Peyton Manning wasn’t that far removed from his retirement from his legendary NFL career when he was back in Knoxville, meeting with and pouring into Joshua Dobbs and the other quarterbacks on the Tennessee football roster.
The topic was preparation. And there as a lot of ground to cover on the subject.
“He sat us down and we went through literally like a three-hour dissertation from Peyton,” Dobbs said this week during an appearance on Josh and Swain in Knoxville, “just talking about preparing as a quarterback. Not only obviously for games, but to be the best person you can be, the best teammate you can be, and what you’re doing throughout the year to improve and get ready for the season.”
Dobbs rarely, if ever, look unprepared during his time with the Tennessee football program.
In four seasons with the Vols, he passed for 7,138 yards and 53 touchdowns, against 29 interceptions, and ran for another 2,160 yards and 32 more touchdowns on the ground.
The 85 total touchdowns Dobbs accounted for is second in program history, trailing only Manning and the 101 he was part of with the Vols from 1994 to 1997. The 39 touchdowns Dobbs totaled in 2016 — 27 passing, 12 rushing — tied Manning’s record of 39 set in 1997. Hendon Hooker had 36 in 2021 and ranks third on the list.
Now it’s Dobbs, a career backup quarterback in the NFL since getting drafted in the fourth round of the 2017 NFL Draft, who is back in Knoxville trying to pass the message on.
“I think just learning the process, right?” Dobbs said. “The process of preparing throughout the year, the stages of the year. Like what you’re doing with your studying.”
“To be able to tap into that, pour into them, and just go back and hang out, just be around,” Dobbs added, “it’s really cool, man.”
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But Joe Milton and Tennessee’s current quarterbacks and wide receivers didn’t need much of a pep talk when it came to preparation. When Dobbs came back to town recently, they were ready to get straight to work.
“I remember I texted Joe,” Dobbs said, “I was like ‘I’ll be in town Friday, want to get a workout in? Or do y’all want to?’ He was like, ‘Cool, I’ll get it set up.’ Then showing up Friday, 9 p.m., and he have every receiver out there. They’re in a warmup lines, they’re ready to go get some work in.
“It was really cool seeing their work ethic … really cool seeing that culture from the guys, the current guys on campus there at Tennessee. It’s cool hanging out with them, throwing with them.”
Continuing that culture is what Dobbs is trying to do, just like Manning did with him.
“It’s all about that fraternity, continuing to build that fraternity,” he said. “To be able to be a part of it, man, I know it means a lot t one and it means a lot to them.”
