Annapolis anonymity no problem for Dobbs

Navy's Ricky Dobbs almost certainly will set an NCAA single-season record for rushing touchdowns by a quarterback when the Midshipmen play Army in Philadelphia today. And yet, a nifty, shifty quarterback who already has crossed the goal line 23 times this season, including five times in one game, doesn't even merit a whisper in all the talk these days about Heisman Trophy front-runners. Dobbs, a junior from Douglasville, insists he pays no attention to any of the building Heisman hype, even if winning the award was always a boyhood dream. "No, it's not disturbing to me at all," he said of not being included in the Heisman conversation. "I've always believed that good things happen to those who wait, so I don't get into things I can't control. Obviously something like that would be a blessing, something I always hoped for. But right now, I have to focus on helping my team and doing whatever it takes to win the next game." Anyway, the 6-foot-1, 198-pound Midshipman had other big-time dreams growing up. He was born on the same day --- Jan. 31, 1988 --- that Doug Williams, playing for the Washington Redskins, became the first black quarterback to win a Super Bowl. So why would anyone be surprised to hear Dobbs say, "I'd like to be the next black quarterback to win that game." And then of course, there is the loftiest goal of all. "President [Barack] Obama already beat me to the punch," Dobbs said in a recent interview. "But I'd like to be the next black president of the United States." Dobbs already has picked out the election year --- 2040 --- when he will be 52 years old, presumably long-retired from what he would like to believe will be a brilliant NFL career, even though he faces a five-year commitment to the Navy once he graduates in June 2011. But after two years of active duty, when he's 24, Dobbs can apply to the secretary of the Navy for a waiver. If granted, he would then serve an additional six years in the Naval Reserve and be free to play football again. When the Navy football team visited the White House in April, honoring the team for winning its sixth straight Commander in Chief Trophy for beating Army and Air Force in the same season, Dobbs made sure to sign the helmet presented to the president five times. He said on his official Navy football blog that he wanted to make sure Obama remembered his name. "He inspired me a lot, gave me another chance as far as feeling reassured that it's definitely a possibility now," Dobbs said. "He's a great man to follow." That is precisely what Dobbs' coaches and teammates in Annapolis also say about their quarterback. "The kid just has an 'it' factor," Ivin Jasper, Navy's offensive coordinator and quarterback coach, told The New York Times last month. "He just has something about him. He finds a way to make plays. "He finds a way to make people around him better." Dobbs has become a master at running Navy's tricky and often devastating triple-option offense, with the quarterback constantly reading an opponent's defense on the fly, deciding after the snap whether to hand off, throw the ball or keep it himself. He leads Navy in rushing with 924 yards and has thrown for 840 more, including four touchdown passes. The next rushing touchdown he scores will break the all-time single-season record by a quarterback of 23 that he shares with Florida's Tim Tebow and the Air Force Academy's Chance Harridge. Dobbs' slick skills also have allowed Navy (8-4) to throw major scares into ranked teams such as No. 8 Ohio State (a 31-27 Navy loss in the season opener) and No. 17 Pittsburgh (a 27-14 loss), even if the Midshipmen are almost always at a disadvantage in weight and speed against foes fielding teams filled with highly recruited blue-chip players. That's what made Navy's 23-21 victory over Notre Dame last month so special. It marked the second time in the past three years the Mids had defeated the Irish, both times in South Bend, and Dobbs led a spirited Navy comeback in 2008 that fell just short in the final minute that would have made it three straight. In fact, recently fired Charlie Weis might be the only coach in Notre Dame history who can honestly say he lost his job because he couldn't beat Navy. "It was like conquering giants," Dobbs said. "They were bigger and faster and stronger, but you can't measure heart. A lot of schools that recruited us said we weren't big enough or fast enough to play for them, so all of us pretty much have a chip on our shoulders when we play those big football schools." Weis and countless other Division I head coaches barely bothered to recruit Dobbs out of high school. He said Georgia Tech's Chan Gailey was interested but wanted him to play wide receiver or defensive back. "My dream was to play quarterback," Dobbs said. "I was 5-9 and 165 coming out of high school. That was the main reason they weren't that interested. But quarterback was where I wanted to be." Dobbs eventually settled on Navy, spending a postgraduate high school year at the Naval Academy Prep School before being admitted. "The way I looked at it, this was the best school you could go to as far as opportunities after college ," he said. "You can go to the NFL from any school, really. I chose to go here because it guarantees jobs and security after football . My family won't want for things like I did growing up. I never had medical insurance until I came here. I didn't go to a dentist until I was 17. So that was a big part of me going to Navy, and it was a great choice for me."