Joe Cox has played the waiting game for more than four years now.

He must be a virtuous fellow because I know I wouldn’t have this kind of patience. My brain fumes when I see more than four cars sitting in a Zaxby’s drive-through line.

Many quarterbacks in his situation would have transferred. I know I would have.

But Cox stayed. Patiently.

Now that quarterback Matthew Stafford has declared for the NFL draft, it’s Cox’s position to lose.

For Cox, being excited would say the least (he used the term “excited” or “exciting” in some way, shape or form 14 times in Wednesday’s press conference). His time has come and, for him, it was well worth the wait.

“I honestly never expected it to come like this,” Cox said. “I was always happy to stay. I was ready for any situation.”

It didn’t matter that for four years Cox never saw much of the limelight. Sure, there were his Colorado game heroics in 2006, but since then it’s been Stafford-this, Stafford-that.

After Stafford and Knowshon Moreno, both dressed in sharp suits, left their press conference Wednesday, a lot of cameramen and reporters followed them out. The reporters who stayed saw Cox make his way to Georgia’s media room, wearing an Elite-11 camp hoodie and a backwards cap, and possibly feeling a little nervous about his first major interview as the top dog on Georgia’s depth chart at quarterback.

It was about as informal of an interview as you get considering that Moreno’s family had reserved seats for his and Stafford’s announcement.

“It’s been tough, waiting,” Cox said. “I was laughing and talking to one of my friends and said I felt like I haven’t played football in 10 years. But I’m excited about it. It’s been a fun road. I’ve had a lot of fun watching both of those guys play, especially Matthew. I’m excited for him, and I’m excited about my chance.”

(I wasn’t joking when I said he was excited).

When it comes to change, a level of uncertainty arises. A lot of people don’t like change when they are comfortable (see: Republicans during 2008 presidential election). But regarding comfort zones, why do you think so many fans kept making excuses as to why Stafford should stay?

I’ve heard: He’s not ready for the NFL. He’s inconsistent and makes too many mistakes!

Right, and all those mistakes are projecting him to be one of the top three overall picks in the NFL draft. And all those mistakes just led to consecutive 10-win seasons. And all those mistakes led to 3,459 yards, 25 touchdowns, your applause and your admiration.

And there’s: But he never won an SEC championship, let alone held up the BCS crystal ball!

So what? Stafford has 32 million guaranteed reasons to not worry about it. I don’t care who you are, but you might as well have missed the first question on “Who Wants to be a Millionaire” if you pass on that opportunity.

My favorite: But who’s going to be our quarterback if he goes?

It seems Cox has been slept on because of everyone’s comfort with Stafford. No one has seen Cox play in almost three years. And then, he was just a redshirt freshman. It’s too early to tell which direction he’ll lead Georgia next season.

But it’s not like Cox is Joe Tereshinski. No disrespect to Joe T by any means, but Cox was a highly sought after four-star quarterback coming out of high school. He’s a simple red-head (who admitted there’s not much cool you can do but rock a buzzcut with the carrot top) that loves to fish.

Everyone knew the ins and outs about Stafford, whether it was from Google searches, sports blogs or wikipedia. No one really knows much about Cox. So here’s Cox on what he brings to the table for the 2009 season:

“I’ve always tried to be a leader,” Cox said. “I think that’s one of my strong points. I feel like I can get this team together and have everybody have the same goal, and hopefully bring some fire to everybody. I’m a rah-rah guy. I like being vocal, I like getting loud. That’s just how I play. Hopefully if I can transfer that to just a couple of other people on the team then it could spread like wildfire.”

Wildfire?

“It’s how I like to play,” he added. “I always looked to Brett Favre and how he played and how he went crazy on the field. That’s the type of guy I want to be when I play.”

Brett Favre? Sounds like a guy that hangs emotion on his sleeve.

“I got a couple of penalties in high school, just getting into it with certain people on opposing teams after plays,” Cox said. “I mean, I enjoyed every minute of it and wouldn’t take it back.”

So his fire on the field matches his hairdo. Would Georgia have more fire if he was on the field more?

“Maybe at certain times,” Cox answered. “Now, is it something where if I would have been in, it would have changed? No. But I felt like at times, and really throughout my career, that you could see certain games where it seemed we were flat and needed somebody or something to spark it. Hopefully I can bring the way that I like to play, and hopefully that can change some things and bring some fire to us.”

Welcome to the starting lineup, Joe Cox.

- Jason Butt is the sports editor for The Red & Black.