Quarterback Roulette

In an interesting turn of events – senior quarterback Joe Tereshinski will start against Tennessee on Saturday. Joe T’s been out with a high ankle sprain since the second game of the season. This will make the third straight game that UGA has started a different quarterback. We’ve gone from freshman Matthew Stafford to redshirt freshman Joe Cox to senior Joe T. How should Bulldog fans react? I’m starting to think that UGA may not have a legitimate starting quarterback. We’re playing quarterback roulette. All three guys have started a combined five college games. That’s not even a half a college season.

Coach Richt’s probably selected Joe T for the Tennessee game because he doesn’t make mistakes and he protects the football. My only concern is can he run the offense. He hasn’t done much in the two games he’s started and he’s coming off an injury. In other words, he’s rusty. At least Cox and Stafford have shown an ability to run the offense and they’ve been on the field recently. Cox lead the charge in the come from behind victory over Colorado and Stafford lead us to victory over both South Carolina and Alabama-Birmingham.

Because of inconsistent quarterback play, I think Georgia should focus on running the ball against Tennessee. We have four great runners: Thomas Brown, Kregg Lumpkin, Brannan Sutherland, and Danny Ware. If we establish the run game, then it will ease the pressure off our inexperienced quarterback and we can work in some screen passes and play action. We probably could run Coach Richt’s favorite play – the out the shotgun quarterback hand off option.

Georgia can beat Tennessee as long as we have a sound game plan. The Vols haven’t beaten anyone of consequence and like us they’ve struggled with weaker opponents, i.e. Air Force. The game’s at home so the Bulldogs have to take advantage of the home field crowd and score early and often.

Go Dawgs!