Posts tagged Joe Cox

Heading into spring football, the large questions face the Georgia Bulldogs. Who will play quarterback and how will the defense perform? Ironically, these were two areas of concern last year.

Inside the DawgNation, most of us feel pretty good about our defensive prospects. Sure, there will be some growing pains, but most of us feel there will be improvement. Chris Low probably doesn’t share our encouraging view.

Quarterback, while we knew who the starter was going to be, was still an unknown in regards to performance. The year started with a fifth-year senior with exceptional leadership skills. The conclusion was apologists lining up to state we were all wrong for expecting anything more from Joe Cox than we would have from a true freshman.

So here we are again.

Buck Belue has an interesting piece up on his blog today. His title, “How to Win the QB Job.”  Buck lists six steps to winning the job. I believe these six steps could just as easily serve as a guide to be successful after you have won, or simply inherited, the job.

Let’s take a look at Bucks advice and how we measured up last season.

The first step to earning respect is to keep your mouth shut and just go about doing your job. No one wants an unproven QB talking smack about how good they are. They haven’t done anything yet. Best I can tell, this hasn’t been a problem for Logan, Aaron or Zach. So, rule #1: Keep the smack talk to a minimum. It creates a bad vibe. Instead, be a team guy.

I don’t think we accomplished this step last year. I assume Buck would include talking smack with your own fans as a no-no. Even if they never played the game between the hedges. Frankly, the guy is supposed to be better than us. The bar at Georgia is set much higher than it is in high school, even at Independence.

Rule #2: Talk it up on the field. Quiet guys don’t make for good leaders. A big part of this job is communicating. You can be quiet off the field, but you must speak up on it. Take charge! Encourage the receivers and the O-Line. Motivate the backs. Stand up to the defensive player talking trash. Be in control of the huddle. Basically, do a great job communicating.

I believe Joe did a very good job of leading, in this manner, on the field.

Rule #3: Work hard at improving. No team wants a QB who doesn’t work hard. Arrive early and stay late. Work on your mistakes after practice. If you have passion for the game, you won’t mind working hard.

We all know Joe was an All-American on the summer practice fields. He probably threw his shoulder out, and by example Aaron Murrays, by working so hard.

Rule #4: Be tough. When you get hit, get up. Save the drama for your momma. No team wants a sissy at QB. Be fearless in the pocket. Throw it and take the hit. Don’t back down. Don’t take on the MLB when scrambling around, but don’t just go lay down like a sissy. I got some good advice as a freshman in high school…go hard and go low. Get under the pads of the guy tackling you.

Joe had his moments towards the end. But when your coach blames your poor performances on “shots” you took early in the game, toughness comes to mind. Against Okie State, Tennessee, and Kentucky, bad things happened in series subsequent to our QB receiving big hits.

It should be noted Chris Leak, another Independence product, did not handle contact well. Do they let QB’s wear green jerseys during the games in North Carolina?

Rule #5: Always be prepared. Know the playbook. Understand what the OC is trying to do with his playcalling. Study the plays he calls on 1st down and 3rd down situations. Ask him why he’s calling certain plays to get a better understanding. Ask him to let you call a series at practice…and when you get the opportunity, call the series like the coach would.

There is no doubt Joe knew the playbook. As for being on the same page with Mike Bobo, I assume he was, although that page was often the wrong one early in the season.

I will never get over the personality shift that took place between the first and second offensive series in Stillwater. Never!

Rule #6: Show’m you’re about one thing, and one thing only…winning. That’s the most important thing. You’ve totally won your teammates over, when they understand you can help them win games.

All of these steps are evaluated subjectively, this one more than the others. Joe won his teammates over and he showed a great deal of grit. The drive against LSU was something to behold. The kid never lost in high school.

We are all going to form our own opinions on Joe Cox. Frankly, I think he is going to get a little more blame for our woes last year than he deserves. It pains me to say it, but Mike Bobo did not do Joe any favors.

Perhaps Bobo was wrong about what he had in Joe. Joe was a capable and accurate passer. He had leadership qualities. I just think he didn’t handle all that was placed upon him as well as Bobo thought he would.

The pressure appeared to get to him at time. The pressure from defenses, the pressure from the fans, Bobo, and indeed the pressure Joe put on his self.

SEC football is a big boy’s game. Eriz Zeier was probably the most similar quarterback, in physical stature, to Joe Cox that I can think of. Zeier lived up to Buck’s list from game one of his freshman season. Greg Talley could not keep Zeier off the field.

I am not bring “Eric the Great” up to beat up on Joe, but to make my point about toughness. Sometimes a freshman is better than a fifth year senior, especially when they have that “it” factor.

Zeier, David Greene, hell even Quincy Carter and Mike Bobo were very capable signal callers as freshmen.

Using Buck’s list, I see no reason we shouldn’t be just as optimistic in terns of quarterback play as we are in terms of our defense’s performance.