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Wednesday, August 30, 2006
Every snap a test for Tereshinski
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
Athens — Mark Richt calls Joe Tereshinski “a good preparation guy.” I suppose there are worst things you can call your starting quarterback. Imagine where Emeril would be without a good preparation guy. Who would chop the carrots?
Joe Tereshinski is a good kid. A smart kid. The kind of kid you can foresee doing something really significant with his life, thereby reducing having played football at Georgia to an afterthought (shocking, I know).
He has sat in meetings with David Greene and D.J. Shockley. But by all appearances, that’s as close as he gets to either. He hasn’t projected Greene’s cool or consistency. He doesn’t have Shockley’s talent and play-making ability.
Good kid. Smart kid. Starting quarterback?
“I tend not to think about [the doubts],” Tereshinski said. “But there’s something to prove, something to go out there and show people that you can play, and you can play mistake-free football.”
Georgia opens the season Saturday against Western Kentucky, another of college football’s I-AA sacrifices willing to take a payoff for a beating. As tests go, Western Kentucky won’t equal Florida or Auburn or even South Carolina next week.
But every snap will be a test for Tereshinski because he won’t start any series with the depth chart security of his predecessors. The question is whether he can avoid becoming more than the answer to a trivia question, “Who played after Greene and Shockley and before Matthew Stafford?”
The question is whether he is a starting quarterback for any reason other than longevity.
It’s only Western Kentucky. There are a lot of “onlys” on Georgia’s schedule. The first eight games should break down as seven “onlys” and one Spurrier. That road of marshmallows should play in Tereshinski’s favor. (Then again, a case could be made that the schedule could’ve played in Stafford’s favor, regarding his development.)
Richt denies he’ll be on guard with his play-calling with Tereshinski. “We’ll have a normal Georgia quarterback gameplan,” he said.
Whatever that is. Even if Tereshinski is voted the least likely to ignite an offense, he’s also the least likely to spontaneously combust. That might be the biggest reason he’s in there: Richt doesn’t feel like it’ll be a struggle to control him.
“I always have an expression for the quarterbacks: ‘Don’t turn a bad play into a catastrophe,’ ” he said. “If you do things the way we ask you, you’ll probably throw to the right guy about 90 percent of the time. But there are times when things break down. It should be protected beautifully, but the guy misses a block. Or it should be open but the guy runs the wrong route. Or you think it’s a good play but they happen to have a good defense called.
“What are you going to do now? Are you going to throw it up for grabs? Are you going to try to run around and be a hero? Are you going to get a 15-yard sack? Are you going to manage that situation and throw the ball out of bounds, or step up in the pocket and maybe take a 3-yard sack? [Tereshinski has] just done a really good job of not turning any bad situations into a catastrophe.”
But at some point, won’t the quarterback have to make a play?
“I feel like I can make any throw they ask me to,” Tereshinski said. “I don’t think I limit this team by any means. I wouldn’t necessarily call myself a playmaker, compared to Thomas Brown and Mohamed Massaquoi and Martrez Milner. They’ve proven themselves. As long as you get the ball to those, then you’re giving yourself a chance to win.”
Good kid. Smart kid. But his resume has one start, a loss at Florida. He went 8 for 21 for the injured Shockley. There’s little else to go on. He’s not viewed as a cornerstone of the program, but a temp.
“You’re playing for a series. You’re playing for more playing time,” he said. “Like Coach Richt said, he’s going to play more than one quarterback, most likely.”
If nothing else, he seems prepared.
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By George, they did it!
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
For a split-second, I had a silly thought after the Oakland Raiders decided to resurrect Jeff George from the NFL dead.
That silly thought? Why?
Here’s why: Terrell Owens, J.R. Rider, Albert Belle, Maurice Clarett, Dave Kingman, Randy Moss, Latrell Sprewell, Lawrence Phillips, Dennis Rodman, John Rocker, etc.
They rank among the most flawed athletes in history. Then again, they also rank among the most physically talented athletes in history. It’s a combination that has caused more than a few executives in sports to have amnesia before doing something such as signing a Jeff George anyway.
Although George always had that wonderful arm, he couldn’t keep from poisoning locker rooms across the league through his feuds with coaches and others on teams. So, despite George not throwing an NFL pass in five years, the Raiders still gave him a contract.
These things never make sense, but they makes total sense - until the executives involved with these things get burned like their predecessors.
Permalink | Comments (21) | Categories: Quick Hit, Terence Moore
