A year ago, Dak Prescott was just another former college quarterback trying to prove himself to NFL teams. Prescott’s final game in a Mississippi State uniform was in the Belk Bowl, a 51-28 Bulldogs victory over NC State in which the MSU great went out with a bang (25-of-42, 380 passing yards, 4 TD, INT).

After the Belk Bowl, Prescott had one last chance to show how he handled game prep and game situations: the Senior Bowl. The game ended up shaping Prescott’s NFL career, and he hopes that this year’s seniors will focus on showing their best skills to NFL scouts.

Prescott came away with the MVP award from the game, but more importantly he impressed his future coaches. Even though the Dallas Cowboys coaches were coaching the North team, and Prescott was on the South team, the coaches got to meet with members of both teams.

“The coaching staff really bought into Dak,” Cowboys assistant director of player personnel Will McClay recently told Sirius XM NFL Radio. “I think there were two players that blew our coaches away with their football intelligence. Dak was the second one. Carson Wentz was the first … I’d be kidding if I said we knew Dak was going to be that good and do what he did because we would have picked him in the first round. But there was a great conviction from the coaching staff in the player (Prescott).”

This Saturday, another SEC dual-threat quarterback, Josh Dobbs, looks to use the Senior Bowl to boost his draft stock. Dobbs has plenty to gain from a strong Senior Bowl showing, as he is currently projected as seventh-round pick on CBS Sports’ NFLDraftScout.com. The multi-year Vols starter has his share of critics and believers.

In November, former Tennessee and NFL assistant Kippy Brown predicted Dobbs would be a middle-round pick, similar to Prescott who went in the fourth round.

“Somebody’s gonna get this kid probably somewhere in the middle rounds,” Brown added. “They’ll pass on him for a while, and then somebody will say, ‘Hey, we can’t pass on this guy again.’ They know what happened with Dak. Same thing happened with Russell. Now, if he’s at Jacksonville with no help, or if he’s at Cleveland or somebody that’s down, no, it’s not gonna happen.”

One draft, writer, however hasn’t been wowed by Dobbs’ showing in Mobile, Ala.

Come Saturday we’ll see if Dobbs has made that major improvement Miller references.