Tennessee QB Joshua Dobbs might be the most confounding player to watch this season.

At one moment, he’s overthowing a wide-open receiver on a deep route. A few plays later, he’s gaining yards by breaking tackles left and right.

Its tough to come up with a conclusion on Dobbs performance so far this season. Therefore, we’re going to take a closer look at positives and negatives of Dobbs’ play this season and see if we can come to a consensus.

POSITIVES

1. Dobbs has two of Tennessee’s most important touchdown runs this season: In Tennessee’s game against Georgia, Dobbs scored the game winning 5-yard TD by plowing through a wall of Georgia defenders. Then last Saturday against Missouri, Dobbs broke about five tackles on an 8-yard TD run right before halftime that gave Tennessee a 16-0 lead. Dobbs is one of the only quarterbacks in college football that runs with power.

2. Dobbs is a big reason why Tennessee’s rushing attack has been effective this season: Heading into Saturday’s regular-season finale against Vanderbilt, Tennessee is second in the SEC in rushing with an average of 213.7 yards per game. If that holds up, it would be the program’s highest single-season average since 1994. Having a mobile quarterback has freed up Tennessee’s offense to use a combination of running plays from the same formation, confusing the opposing defense.

3. Dobbs is good at rolling outside of the pocket and throwing on the run.

NEGATIVES

1. Despite throwing mostly short passes, swing passes and screens, Dobbs has only completed 59.7 percent of his passes this season:  There have been issues with Tennessee’s passing game that are out of Dobbs’ control (injuries to his wide receivers and a lack of protection from a beat-up offensive line), but he has misfired on several deep throws. Considering how potent Tennessee’s rushing attack has been, Dobbs should’ve been able to use play-action passes and his running ability to create openings for receivers. But that hasn’t happened in many games.

2. Dobbs’ ability to make throws inside the pocket is still a work in progress: Everything from footwork, to pocket presence, to keeping his eyes downfield, to his throwing mechanics needs to improve for Dobbs to reach full potential.

CONCLUSION

There’s little doubt that Dobbs’ ability to run the football makes Tennessee’s offense a challenge to stop. But he has work to do to become one of the best quarterbacks in college football next season.