ASU lands Georgia quarterback Dobbs

Two weeks after an unofficial visit to Arizona State Alpharetta (Ga.) quarterback Joshua Dobbs called coaches at the school and let them know he was ready to end his recruitment.

Hours after the Wednesday morning decision, the 6-foot-3, 190 pound Dobbs explained to a reporter that he was sorry it took a while to return a phone call seeking comment. There were a lot of other phone calls to make first.

"I felt like all the other schools and coaches deserved to hear of my decision voice-to-voice because I appreciated all of their efforts in recruiting me and I got to know some of them really well," Dobbs said. "I don't know how many I called but it was a lot and I talked to everyone I could get a hold of.

"But at the end of the day, of course as I expressed to you previously, I really loved my vacation to Arizona when my family visited Arizona State and since then I have been thinking about it a lot and eventually I came to the conclusion that I know ASU is the best place for me so I felt it was time to make this commitment and I called coach (Mike) Norvell and coach (Todd) Graham and spoke with both of them to let them know."

Arkansas, Boston College, Duke, Harvard, Illinois, Maryland, Mississippi State, Princeton, South Florida, Southern Miss, Syracuse, TCU, UCF, Wake Forest and Yale had reportedly each extended an offer to Dobbs in addition to the Sun Devils.

"I was very impressed with Arizona State academically, athletically and everything," Dobbs said. "I was able to visit other universities and see what I thought about them and after retuning home and weighing everything I know that ASU is the best option for me. They have the aeronautical degree that I'm interested in, which is such a rare degree, and a great coaching staff and football program in a high profile conference and the city is great too.

"The coaches were both extremely excited. They said they were really looking forward to it and were glad that I'd made my decision to become a Sun Devil. It felt very good, I'm just very excited right now about the program and the opportunity I've been blessed with to play under and be coached by coach Norvell and coach Graham."

Last season, Dobbs had 3,113 passing yards and 29 touchdowns with 16 interceptions and a 60 percent completion rate. He's gearing up to try to outperform those numbers as a senior ahead of a move to Arizona.

"It's a very active part of summer with summer football and baseball so I'm focusing on those and getting ready for my senior year and winning a state championship," Dobbs said. "[Graduating early] is something that I'm going to have to sit down with my parents and discuss and talk to coach Norvell and coach Graham about. I've thought about it a little bit."