HOOVER, Ala. – Many collegiate players might take an airplane trip or two over the course of the offseason. Tennessee quarterback Joshua Dobbs isn’t too far from actually being able to fly the plane.
“On the way over here, I thought he was going to try to fly the plane,” Butch Jones joked of his quarterback, who accompanied him to represent the Vols at SEC Media Days.
More accurately, Dobbs is getting closer to being able to fix it. That’s what he spent much of the month of May doing in West Palm Beach, Fla., where he was an intern with aerospace manufacturer Pratt and Whitney, learning how to test engines on military jets.
“It was awesome,” Dobbs said of the experience. “I was working on an F-135 engine, which go in the new F-35 fighter jets that our Marine, Army and Navy will all be flying different variants of the plane. I was around the engine, working in testing at Pratt and Whitney’s camp in West Palm Beach (Fla.) and it was amazing. I learned a lot. Definitely an experience I’ll take moving forward, and definitely opened my eyes to stuff after football in the aerospace engineering field…
“I’ve always been interested in it,” Dobbs continued, speaking about airplanes. “I remember when I was younger when we would go to the airport, my parents would always get me there early and I would just stare at planes – I was just fascinated by them. They always thought it was kind of weird, but I just had a love for them. Then in the seventh grade I went to a Delta Camp – a Tuskegee Airmen Camp – to view and tour the Delta facility and I got an introduction to it. I was definitely fascinated with it, and then just with learning physics and everything, it was just kind of the perfect mix of everything I was interested in.”
He was also a standard airplane passenger plenty this offseason as well. He first spent time as a counselor at The Elite 11 in Beaverton, Ore.
“It was different going back and being the counselor this time,” Dobbs said. “Of course I participated in it my senior year and I was obviously a camper, so it was different – they changed the format and everything – but it was just great to go back and see the guys that I went to the Elite 11 with and talk about all our adversity stories and all we went through, and then be around the next college quarterbacks that are coming back, so it was a great opportunity.”
He then held the same counselor title at the Manning Passing Academy before hopping on the private plane to Birmingham to represent the Vols along with Jones, cornerback Cam Sutton and defensive end/linebacker Curt Maggitt. Those three players, in addition to tight end Alex Ellis, center Mack Crowder and linebacker Jalen Reeves-Maybin, also comprise Tennessee updated “player staff.”
Jones, who is entering his first season at UT with a starting quarterback firmly in place over the offseason, likes Dobbs’ off-field initiative – seeing it as a sign of competitiveness.
“Well Josh is very goal-oriented,” Jones said. “His mother and father keep him on task at those goals. For him to take a month and do an internship down in Florida, I thought that was real beneficial for him, not just in his chosen endeavor once football is over, but also from a leadership standpoint as well. That’s Josh – Josh is a very driven young man. He’s extremely competitive, no matter what the instance it is, he’s always going to be competitive.”
He’s consistent too, according to Jones.
That’s why he trusts him to pursue his own interests – to take some time away from campus and to be the Renaissance Man and emerging star in the SEC that he’s becoming. A year removed from a time when Jones said Dobbs’ time hadn’t come as a quarterback yet, he’s completely comfortable with his brainiac, dual-threat quarterback calling the shots in 2015 after coming on strong at the end of 2014 after piling up 1,675 yards in just six games as the primary quarterback.
“It makes it easier in terms of he’s proven himself,” Jones said. “We understand what we’re getting with Josh, and we always talk about consistency and performance. And we know what we’re getting with Josh day in and day out, week in and week out. He’s done a tremendous job.”
