Tennessee quarterback Joshua Dobbs has been under the microscope virtually his entire career in Knoxville. Tasked with leading the Volunteers back to relevancy and working toward bringing home an SEC Championship during his four seasons on Rocky Top.

While the goal of winning an SEC title never materialized for Dobbs, he will leave behind a legacy few quarterbacks could match in Tennessee’s 120-year old football history. With his college career behind him, Dobbs is now being evaluated and studied by NFL scouts and executives in hopes of having his name called in the 2017 NFL Draft.

In preparation for his potential pro career, Dobbs joins a large list of standout seniors in Mobile, Alabama this week for the upcoming 2017 Senior Bowl.

During the Senior Bowl festivities, Dobbs gave a one-on-one interview, which can be found on the Reese’s Senior Bowl homepage.

Two questions stood out from the interview, including Tennessee’s failure to live up to preseason expectations and one on Jalen Hurd’s decision to leave the program eight games into the season:

Resse’s Senior Bowl: You got to end your career on a really high note but you guys were very highly touted. There was a lot of hype surrounding your program. You guys were supposed to win the SEC East this year, you were supposed to challenge Alabama for the SEC crown and that didn’t happen. When you look back at this season, is there anything that you would change?
Dobbs: Of course winning a championship as any competitor I feel like would say. Obviously coming into the season we had high hopes and high expectations and we don’t shy away from those expectations. We didn’t get it done and of course it hurts. We had several injuries throughout the year. You play the number one team in the country with 16 of 22 starters out, so it was just the dynamic of football but throughout the season I was definitely thrilled to see just the competitive nature of my team – how we fought throughout each game, fought til the end, whether it was the thrilling comebacks at the beginning of the year or even the games we lost. Losing to Vandy, fighting til the end. And then to go out on a high note in the Music City Bowl always feels good but to see the competitive nature of the team and to see just how far the football program at Tennessee had come from when I got there as a freshman. When I got there as a freshman, my freshman year we went 5-7, there weren’t many expectations around the program, there wasn’t much buzz, and then to get to your senior year and the expectations are winning the SEC East, an SEC title and going to the playoffs, that’s a big change in just three short years. To see all that hard work that I put in, that the rest of the seniors put in, other team captains put in, during our time at Tennessee, it was an honor to put Tennessee back on the map and that was our goal when we stepped on the campus and we were able to do that. And now we pass the torch along to the young guns and hopefully they can continue to keep the ball rolling.

Resse’s Senior Bowl: As a leader on that team, when Jalen Hurd made that decision to leave the team, what was the feeling for you?
Dobbs: For me, the feeling really never changed. I knew guys were looking to me to see how I reacted under a tough situation. So I remember getting back from South Carolina and calling a team meeting on Sunday, me and other fellow captains, and just talking to the team about how there might be distractions out there outside media trying to fill thoughts and make their own assumptions about the team but the only opinions that matter are the guys in this room and we affect how we play each and every Saturday so we have to focus in on our preparation, on how we prepare for the next upcoming week because no matter who we step on the field against, they’re not gonna care about whatever distractions and things that we have going on so we have to be focused and ready to play. It showed, the way we finished out the season. I knew at that time, the team was looking toward me for my leadership, for my steady consistency and preparation and my approach each and every day and that’s what I was able to offer up to the team.

The full interview can be heard here: