No pressure or anything, Joe Tereshinski. All you're asked to do Saturday is beat your school's hated rival, clinch the SEC East, keep alive an undefeated season and national championship hopes.
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| Georgia fans will put their faith in Joe Tereshinski this weekend. (AP) |
Then melt obediently back into the background.
If that's about it, can we move on? Because, Joseph Peter Tereshinski III knows what it's like to be a Bulldog.
It means extending a Georgia legacy that goes back to 1906. Making proud a grandfather (Joe Sr.) who came out of the Pennsylvania coal mines to Athens, Ga. in 1941 and played for the undefeated 1946 team.
It means sometime Saturday night, hugging a dad (Joe Jr.) who played for Vince Dooley on the 1976 SEC championship team. Dad has been a Georgia assistant for 23 years.
"All three of them have the same genes," Dooley said. "Absolutely overachievers. They go hard and want to do everything right."
That's more than 60 years of Joe T.'s, the latest becoming a Southern-fried fairy tale this week. His story is so compelling because this is probably it for the phenomenon becoming known as Joe T III. At least for this year.
And maybe forever as far as being the No. 1 quarterback for an undefeated SEC powerhouse.
Athens' native son enrolled in January 2002 knowing full well he might not start until 2006 -- if then.
Sure, no pressure at all in beating Florida in the Cocktail Party for a spot in the SEC championship game.
"It's going to be a pretty surreal week for him, I think," said coach Mark Richt.
There is surreal and there is unbelievable. How many major-college quarterbacks have their resumés posted online? Or have the wherewithal to carry a double major? Tereshinski's is finance and, get this, risk management.
