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Saturday, September 2, 2006
Tough situation for Tereshinski
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
Athens — Poor Joe T. Here he’d done the thing he’d waited all his life to do — start for the team of his dreams and win a game between the hallowed hedges — and it wasn’t enough to satisfy his constituency or stifle all inquiries. Afterward, he kept being asked if he still felt like Georgia’s No. 1 quarterback, and finally someone asked if Joe Tereshinski III wasn’t tired of that question.
“I’m ready for it to be set,” said Joe T, meaning his depth-chart status. “I’m ready for it to be set in stone.”
But it isn’t yet, and it might never be. If anything, Saturday’s game rendered it a bit less likely that Joe T will make it through the season as the starter. Matthew Stafford played against Western Kentucky, and now that Stafford can’t be redshirted there seems little reason not to play him more as the season unfolds. And such is the curious hold Stafford has thrown over Georgia fans that the flash memory of this game wasn’t of Joe T making his first home start but of Stafford’s last drive — long scramble, three completions, the last a touchdown pass.
Before Saturday, Stafford still wasn’t sure he was going to play this season, let alone this day. Being redshirted had, he said, crossed his mind, and 13 days ago Mark Richt was leaning toward shelving the heralded rookie. But the coach changed his mind after watching Stafford respond to being named co-No. 3 — Richt: “He didn’t pout; he didn’t mope” — and there seems a chance Stafford will be No. 2 when the Bulldogs arrive in Columbia.
“I don’t know what we’ll do,” said Mike Bobo, the quarterbacks coach, “whether we’ll go co-No. 2s or whether Joe [Cox] will be No. 2 or Stafford will be.”
Said Richt of Stafford: “From the time we made the decision [Aug. 20], he’d probably practiced second-best. I think he’ll help us win. And we know Joe T is a senior, and we know somebody besides Joe T is going to play next season, so we just thought it was in [Stafford’s] best interest to get reps now.”
You’d have thought Joe T — a third-generation Bulldog — would be the people’s choice in his hometown, but no great ovation greeted Georgia’s No. 1 quarterback when he took the field Saturday. The ovation was saved for Stafford, who took the first snap of his collegiate life on the first play of the fourth quarter. His first two passes were incomplete. His last three were not. All were delivered with a zip Joe T cannot approximate.
For the record, Tereshinski completed 7 of 17 passes for 90 yards and one touchdown. At least three of his deliveries were dropped. “I thought I threw better than my statistics will probably show,” he said, “but I need to speed up my footwork and my decision-making. I need to give the receivers a better ball to catch.”
Understand: Joe T hasn’t lost the job he’d waited so long to win. He’ll start against South Carolina, but you wonder how long Georgia’s coaches can go with this process of re-evaluation. Another month? Three more months? Said Bobo: “We’re not going to sit here and announce who’s going to be where week-to-week.”
“You can never close the door on competition,” said Tereshinski, but Stafford’s heartening drive only served to open the door of uncertainty even wider.
“Even if I was going to be redshirted,” Stafford said, “I’ve kept the same attitude. I was going to prepare like I was going to be the starter.”
A prediction: If Georgia uses two quarterbacks in Columbia, Stafford will be the second, Stafford as opposed to Cox. And if Georgia needs a fourth-quarter rally, Stafford will be designated to lead it.
Funny how things change. As of noon Saturday, the smart money was on Stafford being redshirted. With one mop-up appearance, a quarterback controversy was stoked anew. Asked if Stafford might start before the season is done, Bobo said: “I can’t answer that right now.”
But he didn’t say no. And he didn’t offer anything that could be taken as a blanket endorsement of the incumbent. Poor Joe T. He waits 23 years to be Georgia’s quarterback, and here comes Matthew Stafford, already closing ground.
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