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Tennessee Volunteers

Kick Six Index: ‘Dobbsnail Boot’ early leader for Play of 2016?

Joe Cox

By Joe Cox

Published:


Each week, we take a look at the weekend’s biggest moment in SEC football and analyze its overall significance according to the following criteria: The uniqueness and excitement of the moment itself, the stakes involved/overall impact of the play and the degree to which the college football world reacted.

This Week’s Biggest Moment

When Tennessee battled back again, trailing by double digits, then pulling ahead of Georgia in the closing seconds, the biggest play of the week stood to be Corey Vereen’s fumble recovery in the Georgia end zone.

That play gave Tennessee its first lead of the game with just under three minutes to play in Athens, and was exactly the sort of good luck mojo that the Vols had been missing for many years.

I’ve written elsewhere on this site about that mojo, and the apparent rebirth of same, so we’ll leave that topic for now, and say that those thoughts fled a million miles away when Jacob Eason, he of whose magic I have also already written on this site, seemed to lift Georgia back to victory by sheer force of talent and will.

Eason’s 47-yard scoring strike to Riley Ridley with 10 seconds on the clock was — again — the stuff of legend. Anyone who doubted Eason has no excuses left. The guy is for real.

In his fifth college game, he has twice delivered apparent game-winners in the closing seconds of SEC games. What else can he do? Unfortunately for Georgia, not play defensive back.

After a foolish, but admittedly understandable unsportsmanlike conduct penalty just after Eason’s 47-yard bomb, a bizarre pooched kickoff, and an accompanying incomprehensible offsides penalty, Joshua Dobbs had 4 seconds to traverse 43 yards to victory.

How long were Dobbs’ odds?

Long enough that it seemed possible that Tennessee coach Butch Jones might instead place the game on kicker Aaron Medley for a 60-yard field goal to tie the score. Medley, a senior, has never made a 50 yard field goal in a game, much less a 60-yarder.

But Jones let the game ride on a miracle chance for Dobbs, the sometimes maligned senior QB who has been notable to Vols fans for his weaknesses and not his strengths.

ESPN’s win probability chances had Georgia with a 99.9 percent chance of claiming the victory.

Georgia curiously rushed just two players, so Dobbs had plenty of time and a clear shot to deliver a bomb into the UGA end zone, where 6-3 receiver Jauan Jennings went up, caught the ball cleanly, and fell to his back with the game winning touchdown in his grasp.

Never, since perhaps LSU’s 2002 Bluegrass Miracle, has a sewn-up SEC game become unsewn quite so quickly.

Jones crumpled to the ground like a child, his emotions running wild over him just as they doubtlessly did for millions in Tennessee and Georgia. Tennessee fans have nicknamed the play “The Dobbsnail boot,” which is a mild cheap shot at the famous Larry Munson call of a game-winning David Greene pass against Tennessee in 2002.

But just as Munson called, “We just stepped on their face with a hobnail boot,” Tennessee inflicted huge damage with Dobbs’s miracle pass.

The Vols have a stranglehold on the East, and if they can even split the dangerous next two games against Texas A&M and Alabama, the Vols have a great shot at college football’s Final Four. So how big was this play? Ask me again in two weeks, I can tell you if it was an SEC earthquake or a freaking revolution. For now, it was plenty big. And it could become even bigger as a wild and wooly 2016 rolls on.

The Uniqueness of the Moment

Two lead changes in the last 10 seconds? One Hail Mary answered with another? In a game with what looks like the top two teams in the SEC East? You’d probably have to go back to the Kick Six to find one that was bigger — or more amazing. Score: 10 of 10.

The Stakes Involved

This is the one aspect that is hard to judge. If Tennessee goes on to reach college football’s Final Four, this play was instrumental in reaching it. On the other hand, UT could easily lose the next two games to A&M and ‘Bama, in which case this game might not even seal the East division crown. But odds are good that this one mattered. We’ll score it somewhere between the two extremes, and note that with hindsight, the score could edge higher or drop lower. Score: 8 of 10.

The Fan Reaction

Georgia/Tennessee and a real life agony of defeat/ecstasy of victory moment? Are you kidding me? Twitter blew up. And then blew up again just for good measure. Probably so did cardiac care in the Southeast region of the United States. Again, you probably have to go back to the Kick Six itself to find anything to mention in the same sentence. Score: 10 of 10.

Overall Final Score: 28/30

Previous 2016 Kick Six editions:

Week 1: LSU picked off late

Week 2: Arkansas makes two big plays late

Week 3: Eason’s first huge UGA moment

Week 4: LSU miracle a second late, Miles fired

Joe Cox

Joe Cox is a columnist for Saturday Down South. He has also written or assisted in writing five books, and his most recent, Almost Perfect (a study of baseball pitchers’ near-miss attempts at perfect games), is available on Amazon or at many local bookstores.

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