Is the problem Dobbs, or DeBord's use of Dobbs??

#1
lawgator1

lawgator1

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#1
On the way in this morning was listening to "Full Ride" on XM with Rick Neuheisel and Chris Childers, and of course the game was a topic of conversation. The point that was being argued was that the Vols' offensive scheme is poorly designed when it comes to Dobbs. Dobbs is an athlete, a dual threat. He can throw downfield, but his real strength is that he is always a threat to run. The claim being made was that Dobbs' dual threat ability is underutilized by DeBord.

Personally, my feeling about Dobbs has always been that, while he's a threat to run and capable of making plays downfield, the reality is that he's a bit slow on the decisionmaking when faced with both choices. That is to say, he's fine with either one, if its what is called and the defense is in the right configuration for it to work that time.

If I'm right, the issue is not DeBord. In fact, it may well be that DeBord recognizes Dobbs' limitations, and is trying to manage the decisionmaking for him, from the booth.

If I'm wrong, the issue is indeed the scheme, and DeBord, not surrendering control and putting his faith in Dobbs to make good decisions.

A couple of plays stand out to me that its Dobbs. That wounded duck he threw up at the end of the first half, and another one on a third and long when he had to scramble he threw into a lot of coverage, down near your own 20 (don't remember the exact play or point of the game).
 
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#5
#5
Playcalling was very vanilla, but still terrible. Dobbs still has accuracy issues and couple that with them holding back his running ability last night, it was just not going to end well.
 
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#6
#6
DeBord and more importantly, Butch.

Josh has his shortcomings but for crying out loud, both DeBord and Butch give him no opportunity to succeed. Despite his shortcomings, Josh can do more than he's allowed to do, we've all seen it. It's constantly said that they don't trust him. Well if that's the case, after 4 years with him, just bench him and find somebody that you can trust, you got 3 more talented qbs on the roster. Either let Dobbs play and put him in a position to succeed or just move on from him. This is getting ridiculous.
 
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#8
#8
DeBord.

His play calling is too predictable for one. His line depth is lacking. And the blockers in the plays are giving Dobbs little choice but to use running plays, which by the way suck with a collapsing line.

The linemen need to step it up. And Debord needs to grow a pair with his playbook.
 
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#9
#9
Both.

Dobbs is limited as a passer. DeBord knows this and is forced to call plays from a limited section of his playbook. I don't think Dobbs can really read a defense at all.

Having said that, Dobbs is a lot better outside of the pocket than he is in it. I'd like to see more play action passes and bootlegs out of the pocket where he's throwing to one side of the field. If the read breaks down, he can scramble and improvise, which he is good at.
 
#13
#13
you guys are crazy....last year Debord did a good job. As the gator fan said, Dobbs is slow on decision making. He was very hesitant. He throws high....he should play like he played last year. Just run the ball.
 
#14
#14
KBVol said:
DeBord and more importantly, Butch.

Josh has his shortcomings but for crying out loud, both DeBord and Butch give him no opportunity to succeed. Despite his shortcomings, Josh can do more than he's allowed to do, we've all seen it. It's constantly said that they don't trust him. Well if that's the case, after 4 years with him, just bench him and find somebody that you can trust, you got 3 more talented qbs on the roster. Either let Dobbs play and put him in a position to succeed or just move on from him. This is getting ridiculous.
Click to expand...

He is not a QB.. He is an athlete playing QB
 
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#16
#16
Easiest answer for me is it's a little of everything. But it all starts up front; the o-line sucked last night. If you look at last year, Dobbs didn't start playing well until the o-line did. Just my opinion of course.
 
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#18
#18
The OC is handicapped when your QB can't hit a receiver in stride especially on crossing routes. The passes are usually high, low or behind the receiver. Dobbs timing on crossing routes is horrible. Love the kid, but dang.
 
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#19
#19
For starters, you have to get Kamara a lot more touches. He barely touched the ball the first three quarters. That is STUPID! He's a weapon. And generally we need more creativity. We've also got a good TE--I many balls did he catch?
 
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#21
#21
Easiest answer is shotgun spreads suck and are ruining college football as we know it. JMO

If we were running Alabama's offense Dobbs wouldn't be our QB.
 
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#22
#22
lawgator1 said:
On the way in this morning was listening to "Full Ride" on XM with Rick Neuheisel and Chris Childers, and of course the game was a topic of conversation. The point that was being argued was that the Vols' offensive scheme is poorly designed when it comes to Dobbs. Dobbs is an athlete, a dual threat. He can throw downfield, but his real strength is that he is always a threat to run. The claim being made was that Dobbs' dual threat ability is underutilized by DeBord.

Personally, my feeling about Dobbs has always been that, while he's a threat to run and capable of making plays downfield, the reality is that he's a bit slow on the decisionmaking when faced with both choices. That is to say, he's fine with either one, if its what is called and the defense is in the right configuration for it to work that time.

If I'm right, the issue is not DeBord. In fact, it may well be that DeBord recognizes Dobbs' limitations, and is trying to manage the decisionmaking for him, from the booth.

If I'm wrong, the issue is indeed the scheme, and DeBord, not surrendering control and putting his faith in Dobbs to make good decisions.

A couple of plays stand out to me that its Dobbs. That wounded duck he threw up at the end of the first half, and another one on a third and long when he had to scramble he threw into a lot of coverage, down near your own 20 (don't remember the exact play or point of the game).
Click to expand...

Yesterday Dobbs had a legitimately tough game, though he ended up with decent numbers in the air. His missed three big reads on passes (not that it's easy, but it's what he needs to do). Two of those were on combo routes, one was on verticals against a cover 4 in quarter, and all of them were for outside receivers deep. On the combo routes he threw short even though the short man was covered. The interception was basically the equivalent of a punt with not enough time left for App State to do anything, so it wasn't as bad as some of the other posters have made it out to be. He's supposed to be more aggressive than normal in that kind of third and long situation, where even an interception leaves the defense in a good position. Just don't get sacked there.

The reads on the run plays looked poor, too. Most of his handoffs are actually called runs for the backs, but when he did read in this game he rarely kept it. Almost all of his running was on scrambles.

Debord looked like he was trying to play close to the vest yesterday and call only a small handset of plays where they were confident in the execution. I don't know if they didn't simulation the App State defense very well or if something else was at play, but especially the interior linemen played poorly even with just a few plays to work with. Against Virginia Tech, I would expect more plays for Kamara, more action crossing the backfield (we ran much fewer plays setting up from the end around), and more called QB runs, provided Dobbs is healthy. It looked to me that both sides of the ball tried to use this as a warm up game and the simple truth is that Appalachian State is far too good to play that sort of game.
 
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#23
#23
It seems to me that Josh Dobbs is a very good instinctive player. He can make split-second decisions that are genius, like picking up the bad snap during the Northwestern game and instinctively tucking and running for the far pylon.

But Josh's decision-making skills drop considerably when he has time to actually think through options. Maybe he's over-thinking, maybe it's something else, but the results don't seem nearly as good when there's time for him to shift into deliberate decision-making mode.

Now, DeBord is a very deliberate type of OC. He's a thinking man, along the lines of Coach Cut (not saying he's as good as Cut, just the same deliberate style). He doesn't seem to be much of one to go on gut instinct, and so he probably doesn't trust instinct in others, as much as another OC might.

So it's entirely possible that there is a mismatch, and it's playing out at cost to the team through the play-calling.

Never thought about it in those terms before. But there could be something there.

Thanks for the insightful question.
 
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#24
#24
consistantly under thrown balls, year in and year out, I believe Dobbs is the best option right now for sure. but if you go even back to his high school films , he has always under thrown deep balls and behind receivers on crossing routes. Debrod as an offensive coordinator ran a very predictable and vanilla offense last night. We all need to step away from the ledge, and wait till next Saturday, We will then know what we have. #GoVols
 
#25
#25
ntxVOL said:
Easiest answer is shotgun spreads suck and are ruining college football as we know it. JMO

If we were running Alabama's offense Dobbs wouldn't be our QB.
Click to expand...

The pro style. Is coming back.. Just a matter of time
 
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