The Game against Ole Miss will also be on ESPN 2 This weekend
ATHENS, Ga. --- Georgia's home football game with Tennessee in Athens on Saturday, Oct. 7, will be televised by ESPN according to an official announcement Monday by ESPN and the Southeastern Conference. Airtime is set for 7:45 p.m. ET.
This will be Georgia's second appearance on ESPN this season. The Georgia-South Carolina game was also televised by ESPN.
Athens — Joe Cox stepped from the bench and delivered a message to every Georgia player willing to listen.
"We're going to do this," he told his teammates.
BOB ANDRES / AJC
(ENLARGE)
Martrez Milner pulls in a perfect 20-yard pass from Joe Cox with 46 seconds remaining as UGA avoided a major upset Saturday.
Your Turn
What do you think of UGA's quarterback situation now after Joe Cox guided the Bulldogs to victory?
Gotta make Cox the starter -- he got the job done.
I still think Stafford's the man to have out there.
I just don't know right now.
Then the redshirt freshman backup quarterback delivered a team from the brink of disaster to a briefly glorious high that will most certainly be washed away when the game is dissected today in the film room.
Still, Cox, the oft-overlooked pawn in the chess game between quarterback Matthew Stafford and Joe Tereshinski, moved his ninth-ranked team to 4-0 with 14 fourth-quarter points in a 14-13 win over lowly Colorado in front of 92,746 fans Saturday at Sanford Stadium.
In the process, Cox also might have moved himself into position to start next week at Ole Miss. Following Cox's 10-for-13, 154-yard, two-touchdown effort against the 0-4 Buffs, coach Mark Richt was noncommittal on who'd get the starting nod next.
"I imagine there will be some computers blowing up from all the Internet hits from everybody deciding who should play," he said.
That's because Cox pulled Georgia's fanny out of the fire quickly, engineering the biggest fourth-quarter comeback in Richt's five-plus years on the job.
Georgia trailed 13-0 and had 89 yards of offense when Cox replaced an ineffective Stafford late in the third quarter. A little more than 15 minutes later, Martrez Milner, an unlikely suspect with suspicious hands, tightly hugged the 20-yard winning touchdown with 46 seconds left on the clock.
"I saw the mismatch and I was looking at Martrez and I saw him beating the safety so bad," Cox said. "I knew if I put it up high enough and over his shoulder, he would make a play for me — and he did. I decided to take my shot with Martrez and I am glad I did because he came through."
Cox came through, too. Here was a player who was named the No. 2 quarterback in August. But as soon as Tereshinski went down with an ankle injury in Week 2 at South Carolina, Stafford went up. The highly touted freshman was now No. 1 and Georgia was 1-0 with him as a starter.
Saturday, Georgia needed a finisher.
"He gave us that spark," quarterbacks coach Mike Bobo said of Cox.
That has ignited a fire that will rage most likely until Tereshinski is due to return from injury in two weeks against Tennessee.
Cox and Stafford declined to verbally stake a claim to the starting position. It's up to the coaches, they each said afterward.
Richt has held his cards close to his vest throughout this poker match with fans and media. What has become evident is what Richt has said over and over: Georgia is flush with talent at the position.
"I know either one of those guys could get that job done," offensive lineman Daniel Inman said.
For now, it's about who made the plays. Against Colorado, it was Cox.
"I felt confidence with Joe going in there," Bobo said. "He came in and gave us that. That is one of the reasons we recruited him. ... He was a winner in high school, had a lot of the intangibles, the leadership, and that showed today."
So did a little calm under pressure.
"There was no breakdown in the huddle,"said Cox, who went 31-0 as a starter at Charlotte's Independence High. "I kept saying, 'We are going to be fine. We can pull this out. Two touchdowns, that is nothing.'
"If we can't score two times, we don't deserve to wear G's on our helmets," Cox told his teammates.
Wearing that G has been a great debate for those following the Cox saga. At one point, Cox said it would be hard to wait to get his shot. Now he is thrilled he stuck around for it.
"I was never upset about anything," Cox said of his placement on the depth chart. "I knew Coach Richt was going to do the best thing for the team. I am happy for that. I chose to come here and by doing that I was saying, 'I trust the decisions you make.'
"If he starts me, he starts me. If I sit on the bench with a hat on, I will wear the hat proudly. If I get a series here and there, I am fine with that, too. Whatever Coach Richt wants to do to help this team win in regards to me, I'll do it."
What Richt wanted him to do Saturday was ignite a team that stunk worse than a buffalo chip.
Georgia couldn't get anything going on offense until Cox entered the game with 3:09 left in the third quarter.
It fumbled twice. It was stuffed twice on fourth-and-short inside the Buffs 15-yard line in the fourth quarter. It averaged just 2.0 yards a rush.
The receivers dropped four passes. The line blocked poorly. There were careless penalties.
Everybody was at fault. From Stafford (8 of 16 for 76 yards) to the senior linebackers (CU quarterback Bernard Jackson, who'd been sacked nine times in the three previous losses, rushed for 85 yards).
Had it not been for Cox and his shock paddles, this offense might never have come to life.
His first touchdown, a 23-yard swing pass to Brannan Southerland with 9:11 left, put the Bulldogs in range. His second one, to Milner, kept them unbeaten.
"We have got a lot of fight in our heart and it showed in the end," Inman said. "[Stafford] was fighting as hard as he could, and sometimes it takes a little spark. This team fought to the end, and sometimes it takes a lot of heart.
"I'll take heart any day."
