Dobbs achieves lifelong dream

Demarcus Dobbs found himself in an unfamiliar place Saturday and, based on the ear-to-ear grin that wouldn’t leave his face, he liked it.

The sophomore defensive end , who was making his first start Saturday, was surrounded by reporters holding television cameras and digital recorders in the postgame locker room, all of them wanting to know what happened on his 78-yard interception return for a touchdown.

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Ben Gray/bgray@ajc.com

Georgia defensive end Demarcus Dobbs intercepted a pass that had been tipped and rumbled 78 yards down the sideline for a touchdown.

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He was more than happy to share.

“The first thing I thought was ‘I’ve got to catch this,’ ” Dobbs said. “Once I caught it, I thought, ‘I’ve got some room. I’ve got to score.’ About the 10-yard line, I was thinking, ‘it’s time to lay down.’ I was tired. I was dead.”

Thanks to a convoy of teammates, Dobbs made it. It was the longest interception return for a TD since 2003 when Odell Thurman went 99 yards against Auburn and the 10th longest in school history. That it seemed to take a while to complete was immaterial.

“Somebody ought to put a clock on it and see how long it took him to go the distance,” joked Georgia coach Mark Richt. “It’s hard for a big man to go that long. Thankfully he had that convoy of blockers and a bunch of guys to keeping him motivated going down with him.”

While Dobbs will get most of the credit for the score, it was cornerback Prince Miller that made it happen. He jumped a slant route for Antonio Brown and deflected the pass away. Dobbs, who got his first start Saturday, was trailing the play.

“It was Prince Miller that made a great play,” Martinez said. “He tipped the ball and Demarcus did a great job of running to the football. We talk about that all the time, how good things will happen if you run to the football.”