J.K. Dobbins

Early life

Dobbins' mother Mya was 18 when she was pregnant with him. She considered aborting the fetus, but changed her mind after meeting with a doctor at an abortion clinic.

Dobbins attended La Grange High School in La Grange, Texas. During his high school football career, he had 5,149 yards and 74 touchdowns. He rushed for 2,243 yards and 37 touchdowns as a sophomore and 2,740 yards and 35 touchdowns as a junior. He played in only one game his senior year due to an injury. Despite his injury, Dobbins was a highly-touted four-star prospect, and received over twenty scholarship offers from Power Five conferences. All major recruiting websites ranked him in the top five among his 2017 class for his position and in the top ten for players from the state of Texas. 247Sports and ESPN.com ranked him as a top-50 recruit in the country. After some speculation that he would sign with Texas or Oklahoma, Dobbins committed to Ohio State University to play college football.

2017 season

In his first game at Ohio State in 2017, Dobbins rushed for 181 yards on 29 carries against Indiana. Dobbins had earned the start over the returning 2016 Big Ten Freshman of the Year Mike Weber who was recovering from an injury. In his first season, he eclipsed 100 rushing yards in six games and became only the fourth freshman in Ohio State history to eclipse the 1,000-yard rushing mark in a season. During the 2017 Big Ten Football Championship Game, Dobbins overtook Maurice Clarett for the most rushing yards by a Freshman with his 174-yard, MVP performance. During a 24–7 Cotton Bowl Classic win against USC, Dobbins set the Freshman rushing record at 1,403 yards.

2018 season

Despite a record-setting 2017 season, Dobbins' would once again split time with Weber during his Sophomore year. The time split paired with Dwayne Haskins' award-winning performance at quarterback led to a decrease in productivity for Dobbins. He ended the season with 1,053 yards rushing but remained the team's leading rusher. Notably, he had his first 200+ yard rushing game against Maryland.

2019 season

In 2019, Dobbins would enter his junior season with high expectations. These expectations were met when he went on to gain 100+ yards in ten games during the season. This included a four-touchdown performance against Michigan that stemmed from 211 yards rushing. He finished his season as the only Buckeye in history to rush for more than 2,000 yards in a season, passing Eddie George. Dobbins was a Doak Walker Award finalist and finished sixth for the Heisman Trophy. He was named First-team All-Big Ten and First-team All-American as an All-Purpose player by the Football Writers Association of America.

On December 30, 2019, Dobbins announced his intention to forgo his senior season and enter the 2020 NFL draft. He left Ohio State with a total of 4,459 yards rushing, which makes him second all time. He won four Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week Awards, three Big Ten titles and two bowl games.

Personal life

Growing up in Texas, in a city that is primarily hispanic, Dobbins has developed a distinct interest in the Spanish language and Latin American culture.