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Friday, August 5, 2005
Shockley fully prepared to prove his doubters wrong
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
Athens � D.J. Shockley has played in 26 collegiate games, and not once has he gone to the sideline knowing the next series would be his, too. Anyone tempted to cite instances of Shockley looking shaky � against Florida in 2002, against LSU in 2003, against Georgia Tech last season � should stop and ask: Given the unwieldy circumstances under which he was deployed, could he have been expected to look composed?
“It kind of hurt me [as a quarterback],� Shockley said Friday, meeting the media after Georgia’s first practice of this transitional season. “I tried to do [in those widely scattered series] more than I had to.�
Forget that skittish showing against Tech. Forget everything you’ve seen the last three seasons. Shockley will be fine. He’s a terrific talent and an exemplary human being. About Donald Eugene Shockley, all you need to know is this: Without benefit of starting a game, he has become a team leader. “It’s kind of unique,� he said, addressing that peculiar status. “It’s kind of an honor that people respect you even though you’re not starting.�
D.J. Shockley had trouble sleeping Thursday night, and no wonder. After four years of waiting, he was about to open practice as Georgia’s No. 1 quarterback. (“I never figured it would take this long,� he conceded.) It wasn’t his fault that he happened along at almost the exact same time as David Greene, and it’s to Shockley’s credit that he’s still here after Greene has gone. Not many players of such portfolio � USA Today All-American, Parade All-American � would have stuck around. Almost none would have served such a protracted apprenticeship without becoming an absolute pain.
“He could easily have blown it off and said, ‘I don’t want to play anymore; I don’t want to be in school,’ â€? said Leonard Pope, the burgeoning tight end. “But he waited and waited, and now it’s his time.â€?
Georgia fans may be apprehensive about their quarterback. Georgia coaches are not. “The people who see him day in and day out are really excited,� said Mark Richt, who knows something about quarterbacks. “You get to the point where you can’t really improve until you play in a game, and he’s been past that point for maybe two years.�
As Richt discovered, there was no way to use Greene and Shockley without doing a disservice to both. The few fleeting chances Shockley was granted didn’t really whet appetites, let alone satisfy them. Asked his fondest personal memory as a Bulldog, Shockley mentioned a game against Kentucky in 2002, and even that sounded hollow. As we know, everybody looks good against Kentucky.
But now he gets to try and look good against everybody, and he’s about to remind everyone why signing D.J. Shockley was such a big deal in the first place. He runs well enough to lend a further dimension to Richt’s finesse-y offense, and he throws better than outsiders have reason to believe. Said Shockley: “People are going to see us sit back and throw the ball out of the pocket � that’s going to be the biggest surprise of the year.�
He could have transferred to Maryland and become a starter a year ago, but he stayed because he wanted to be Georgia’s quarterback. He bided his time and did his due diligence – “There’s never been a game I wasn’t prepared for,� Shockley said � and the fruits of such uncommon perseverance are about to show. Georgia fans needn’t worry about D.J. Shockley because Georgia fans haven’t yet seen the real D.J. Shockley.
He can’t go back and become the impact freshman he once dreamed of being, but D.J. Shockley can still make a sudden splash as a senior. Said Pope, intending no pun: “He’s going to shock the world.�
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