Georgia's latest Joe T. has more than Gators in his sights

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.

Georgia fans will put their faith in Joe Tereshinski this weekend. (AP)

All in your first career start.

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.

How many SEC quarterbacks (backup or otherwise) volunteer to be a receiver, long snapper or block for the punter, just to -- as Joe Three Sticks put it -- "earn a letter"?

Two-loss Florida is a six-point favorite over 7-0 Georgia basically because Tereshinski is playing in place of the injured D.J. Shockley. In terms of SEC lore, this is Rudy meeting UGA -- and getting his leg gnawed off.

"Football is in his blood," Richt said. "He's been doing this his whole life. We don't worry about him not caring enough to be prepared."

Not when his football heritage is on the line.

"Basically, almost as far as far as Georgia football has come," Tereshinski said, "our family has been here."

Casual observers think the story started last week when Shockley was knocked out against Arkansas with a sprained knee. Tereshinski came in and finished a 23-20 victory. He wasn't great, and he wasn't a flop. Joe T III merely set the stage for an ongoing passion play.

It's a story that goes back to 1906, when Harold Ketron captained Georgia.

It continues 35 years later Ketron was in charge of a Coca-Cola bottling plant in Wilkes-Barre, Penn. Ketron took a shine to a gangly teenager in the area who he thought might be able to help his alma mater.

Joe Tereshinski Sr. had been dispatched to get a case of beer for his dad one night around Christmastime in the early 1940s. Walter Tereshinski worked in the Pennsylvania coal mines for 48 years. Joe wasn't sure about his vocation but he was sure he didn't want to end up in the mines.

That night when Joe returned, Ketron and Georgia coach Wally Butts were in his living room to recruit him.

Thinking quickly, the 165-pound Tereshinski "bulked up," throwing on a couple of sweaters underneath his lettermen's jacket. That bit of chicanery might have been the only reason he ended up at Georgia.

"They asked me what I weighed," Joe Sr. said this week from his home in Bethesda, Md. "Before I could say anything Mr. Ketron said, 'One-eighty-six.'"

After a 26-hour bus trip to Athens, the kid who would become a patriarch hung on for dear livelihood. He became one of the 12 (out of 75 freshman recruits) who didn't wash out, didn't leave in shame on a bus in the middle of the night from Athens. His weight increased through extra helpings of fried chicken, mashed potatoes and peas from the training table.

He went on to become a member of one of the three teams to beat the NFL champion in the old College All-Star Game. For five of his eight seasons in the NFL with the Washington Redskins, Hall of Famer Sammy Baugh was in the next locker.

So when 82-year-old Joe Sr.'s grandson bends over to take that first snap Saturday, pride won't begin to describe his emotions.

"I'm very grateful to the University of Georgia," he said. "I don't know if you know too much about the coal mines or not ..."

Joe Jr. has stayed away from the media spotlight this week. So has his brother Wally, who also played under Dooley. Joe Jr. has the only phone among the Georgia coaches that doesn't have voice mail -- with good reason during Florida week. Just like his father, the Bulldogs' strength coach and video coordinator has more invested than sweat equity.

Joe Jr. will remember -- as we now know from his son's online resumé -- that Joe T III worked as a teenager on the groundskeeping staff at Jennings Mill Country Club. Two years ago, Georgia's Hope had a summer job as a lifeguard.

Joe Jr. will remember that his son could have gone to Harvard or Stanford or ... Auburn. The family made it his choice. Of his own free will, Joe T III picked Georgia, knowing that David Greene and Shockley were on the roster.

"He is truly a Bulldog," Richt said. "Joe loves Georgia football, period. He felt like if he redshirted and got a chance to start his senior year at quarterback ('06), that was good enough for him. That's how badly he wanted to play here."

The future is now and a lot of people can't believe it. The quarterback himself had some kind of premonition and "the past couple of weeks I prepared like my number might be called."

An instructor has come through and moved a quiz from Friday to Monday so Joe T can clear his head.

Florida coach Urban Meyer isn't buying any of it, apparently thinking he's being deked into thinking a quarterback named Tereshinski will attempt to beat the Gators.

"We're still planning as if there is a chance that Shockley will play," Meyer said, "because he is a legit weapon."

"D.J.'s out," Richt confirmed, "he's been out, he won't get a rep in practice."

There you go, Joe T Three Sticks. It's all yours: the game, the season, the legacy.

Sure, no pressure at all.