UGA's Joe Cox savoring ‘crazy' times

ATHENS — A quick inventory of Joe Cox's first three weeks as Georgia's starting quarterback:

Got out of bed with the flu to play one game. Shrugged off reports of an injured shoulder to play another. Heard critics call for his benching after the first game. Received national offensive player-of-the-week honors after the third.

"It's been pretty crazy," Cox said Tuesday.

But this is what he waited four years for — his time as the top Dog quarterback — and he is determined to squeeze every morsel from the experience.

The highlight so far came Saturday, when he threw a UGA-record-tying five touchdown passes to lead the Bulldogs to a 52-41 win at Arkansas. The lowlight came two weeks earlier, when he completed just half of his passes in a 24-10 loss at Oklahoma State.

And while he appreciates the accolades that followed his performance against Arkansas, Cox acknowledges he is fueled by the criticisms that followed his play against Oklahoma State.

"Anybody that's a competitor, if you have people saying you're not good, you want to play good," he said. "And that's something I say to myself before every game: ‘These people don't think I'm any good.'

"It's something that I think has been driving our offense, too, after Week 1. Everybody [was saying], ‘We have a terrible offense. We don't have Knowshon [Moreno] and Matthew [Stafford]. We're not going to be able to score any points the rest of the season.' Obviously, we want to prove people wrong."

Georgia scored 93 points in wins over South Carolina and Arkansas the past two weeks — the Bulldogs' most points in back-to-back SEC games in five years — and Cox completed 35 of 49 passes for 576 yards and seven touchdowns in the process.

From Week 1, when the blogosphere buzzed about whether he should be benched in favor of backup Logan Gray, to Week 3, when the Walter Camp Foundation named him the nation's top offensive player, Cox's season has been a roller coaster.

"Obviously, it's gotten better since Week 1," he said. "We don't want it to turn around and go the other way.

"It's a lot different just being in Athens after you win. You go places and everybody wants to pat you on the back. After a loss, you don't even want to go out of your house. You don't want to go out to eat and be seen in places because you know people are probably talking about you."

Cox's handling of the high-profile quarterback role, on and off the field, has impressed teammates, who already were his biggest fans.

"All these negative things that were going around about him ? he's a warrior who puts those things behind him and moves forward," wide receiver Tavarres King said. "It shows his character."

Heightening Cox's awareness and appreciation of this season is that he knows it's his last as a football player before he graduates from UGA in December and starts a coaching career.

"The best thing is ... you win a game and it's kind of cool because I'm like, ‘hey, I don't ever have to play them again,' " Cox said with a laugh.

Nothing is going to spoil this time for him — not the battle with the flu that caused him to lose nine pounds before the opening game, not the chronic shoulder condition that forces him to skip throwing at practice on Wednesdays to make sure his arm his fresh on Saturdays.