DESTIN, Fla. — At the Southeastern Conference Coaches Meetings in Destin, Fla., reporters bombarded coach Mark Richt with questions about quarterback Joe Cox, and his ability to command the Georgia offense.

With each question, Richt retorted with nothing but words dripping with confidence and assurance about the senior from Charlotte, N.C.

“They see Joe everyday in practice. They know he understands the system well. They know that he puts the team first,” Richt said. “They can see how accurate of a passer he is everyday. They believe in Joe.”

Parallels have been drawn between Cox and another fifth-year senior that stepped into the starting position in their last season as a Bulldog: D.J. Shockley. He lead the Dogs to a 10-win season and an SEC Championship that year, before losing to upstart West Virginia 38-35 in the 2006 Nokia Sugar Bowl.

“We’re much closer to (those) situations this year. Not to say that (Zach) Mettenberger and (Aaron) Murray aren’t really fine true freshmen quarterbacks, but I really believe Joe Cox’s situation is one where it’d be very difficult to knock him out of the top,” Richt said.

According to Richt, after spring practice came to a close, the coaches held exit meetings with each player to discuss their strengths and weaknesses.

In these meetings, each player was instructed to write down who they believed to be the leader of the team.

After counting the 110 votes, 107 had scribbled down Cox’s name.

“Here’s a guy who’s started one game in his career three years ago and everybody on the team says Cox is the guy,” Richt said. “That happens because of the level of the respect that they have for him, and they respect him because he knows the system.”

Strength of schedule

After making the long westward trek to Phoenix to play Arizona State last September, Richt is painfully aware of what the 2009 schedule has in store for the Bulldogs; not only in terms of travel, but also in quality opponents.

Not only is the first game of the season away, at Oklahoma State, but it will be the first time in six years the Bulldogs will not play the first game of the season between the hedges at Sanford Stadium.

“It’s going to be different. I’m in year nine here, and first game has always been home except Clemson in 2003,” Richt said.

The first game requires the Bulldogs to journey 923 miles to Stillwater, Okla., and worry about a nationwide ABC broadcast on top of studying and preparing to play against the Cowboys.

“One of biggest issues with it is just living through the travel. It is a grind. The players can come in and sleep all day, maybe catch up on sleep,” Richt said. “It’s tough on the coaches too, maybe even tougher, in that they gotta get back up a couple hours later and start that grind again.”

The Bulldogs are also set to compete against three non-conference, BCS opponents, more than Georgia ever planned to take on.

Richt believes it’s not a must to take on three, especially now that the BCS no longer takes into consideration strength of schedule, but wanted to branch out into other regions of the country for the team and for the fans.

“Playing other BCS power conferences, I say just one would be plenty. It’s been (Oklahoma State or Arizona State) and Tech,” Richt said. “Even still, I don’t even think we have to do that. We did it because we wanted to do it for the fans, and to get out of the Southeast region.”

Traveling and BCS-competition aside, the Bulldogs are staring down a beast of a schedule as they also face threatening in-conference opponents, and won’t seem to get a rest until their off week in mid-October.

“We got Oklahoma State, South Carolina, Arkansas, Arizona State, and then LSU and Tennessee. We’re not gonna be breathing until we get an open date,” Richt said. “I just hope we’re still standing when that happens.”

Bite your tongue, coach

With Tennessee football coach Lane Kiffin making his vocal debut by jabbing at fellow SEC coaches through the media, the SEC Coaches Meetings gave all 12 SEC football coaches a chance to sit in a room together with no media and discuss conference-related topics.

The 12 men sat in the Sandpiper conference room at the Sandestin Beach Hilton, and did not have to worry about everything commented on appearing in newspapers.

In his press conference, Richt addressed the dramatizing tendencies of the media.

“I think it gets more attention than it should, there’s a lot of other issues in this world that are more important than (college football),” Richt said. “This is the time of year people are looking for things to write about, especially if the main thing you do is college football, it’s the offseason. Everybody is looking for a story.”

But because these men are painted in the media as arch-rivals in a conference built on heated rivalries, the expected environment and vibe inside the Sandpiper conference would be tense and maybe even somewhat uncomfortable.

Richt refuted that.

“It’s been nothing but professional. There’s a camaraderie in there that I didn’t think would exist. It’s just a bunch of guys doing a very difficult job,” Richt said. “We all know that we all need to watch what we say. We all know that any given morning something could happen that could change our lives in a hurry.”

Entering his ninth season, Richt is the longest tenured coach at a single school of all other coaches.

Since his first SEC Coaches Meetings in 2001, Richt has rid himself of the slight intimidation he was plagued with, but understands what it feels like to be a rookie coach in a powerhouse conference.

“I didn’t know what to think coming in. I was curious to see how it would go. When I first walked in there, I wasn’t going to do anything other than try to keep my mouth shut and listen and learn,” Richt said. “It can be a little intimidating walking into the toughest league in the United States of America.”