Finally—something for the taking: after four years of waiting, D.J. Shockley is Georgia's quarterback for more than a moment

He had one chance. One. And D.J. Shockley would be damned if he didn't try to make it last. Third-and-long. Everybody covered.

What would you do?

Throw it away and live for the next time?

But there wasn't a next time for Shockley last year. Not in that game or in any game.

He had one series. Maybe two. Maybe.

So Shockley would try to make something happen. "When you have one series here or there, it's only natural to want to keep it going," Georgia coach Mark Richt says. "When the ball should have been thrown away, he tried to scramble, buy some time and do something special to extend his playing time."

Sometimes it would work. Shockley would glide away from trouble, find a receiver and earn four more downs. But sometimes things would backfire and he would return to the sideline with that week's one-series cameo over. David Greene would resume control of the offense, and the rumblings would start anew.

Shockley runs too much. He's not a pocket passer.

"You get in there for one series, and you try to make things happen," Shockley says. "Sometimes, you just have to take what's there."

Shockley has taken what's there for four years at Georgia. And, frankly, there wasn't too much there. He always was the future for the Bulldogs, the highly touted Next Big Thing (USA Today second-team All-American and Parade All-American). Trouble was, Greene was the present, and it was a long present (2001-04). But Greene is gone. Now, instead of one series, Shockley gets one year. He's the starter, not the talented understudy getting a taste of the action and suffering through four years of redshirting, injuries and pep talks. "It's going to be hard that first game, wanting to do so much to make up for lost time," he says. Shockley would love to go deep on the first play. And the second. Throw for 400 yards. Run for another hundred. Show 'em all.

But Shockley won't do it. He knows better. Force things too much and the critics will crow. They're still sneering about his 5-for-16 performance in relief of an injured Greene last year against Georgia Tech.

See, he's nothing but a running back in disguise.

That has been Shockley's other burden. He can run like a tailback. But he also has a big arm. "He throws the ball like (former Florida State QB) Chris Weinke," says Richt, who was Florida State's offensive coordinator when Weinke won the 2000 Heisman Trophy at FSU. "He can hit the deep outs, deep balls and digs."

Run? Throw? Both.

"Part of me says I have to be a pocket passer," Shockley says. "And part says to use the talents God gave me. But I have to show people I can sit in the pocket and make the throws."

He has done that in spring drills and throughout this summer. "It's been kind of hard to get him to cross the line of scrimmage this year," Richt says. But it hasn't been tough for Shockley to earn respect. Stick around four years as a highly recruited understudy without blowing up and people notice. "If you asked the team, 'Who do you respect the most?' he'd be the guy," Richt says.

Not that it was easy. "I was real close to leaving--within a day or two," Shockley says. But Richt was honest. "He told me, 'There are times in your life when you have to do what's best for you,'" Shockley says. "He was real with me."

Shockley endured. Now he's the quarterback. "That time has flown by," he says. "I don't have one regret."

But he has more than one series. Finally.

Watch how he uses it.

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