He was elevated to the starting position after junior Mark Brunell suffered a serious knee injury during spring drills, causing him to miss most of the 1991 season.
It was revealed he had received a series of loans totaling $50,000 made by the father-in-law of a friend,[3][4] while Hobert himself had no assets and no specific payment schedule.
[9] This cost Hobert his college eligibility, and was an aggravating factor in the university receiving Pacific-10 Conference sanctions for lack of institutional control; it led to head coach Don James resigning in protest in August 1993 over a two-year bowl ban.
Hobert was also selected in the sixteenth round (453rd overall) of the 1993 MLB draft by the Chicago White Sox, but chose to pursue a career in the NFL.
He was initially expected to compete with Alex Van Pelt and Todd Collins for the starting quarterback position made vacant by Jim Kelly's retirement; however, after a notorious incident in Buffalo where he publicly admitted that he had not read his playbook and was unprepared to play, he was promptly released in mid-October.