Here are 7 things you should about the new South Carolina assistant coach Joe Cox
South Carolina football has a new tight ends coach, with Will Muschamp announcing the hiring Thursdayof former Georgia quarterback and Colorado State assistant Joe Cox joining the staff. Here are seven things to know about the newest addition to the Gamecocks staff.
He’s a Georgia alum but a Carolinas kid
Cox got his start at football powerhouse Independence High School in Charlotte, playing quarterback and leading the Patriots to a fifth consecutive state title in his senior year. He accumulated a 31-0 record as a starter, throwing for 66 touchdowns in his final season en route to earning AP and Gatorade state Player of the Year awards, as well as All-American status from Parade Magazine
In addition, Cox spent a season volunteering as an assistant coach at Porter-Gaud High School in Charleston, according to Dawg Nation.
When Matthew Stafford got benched, he played hero for Georgia
Before Matthew Stafford became a collegiate superstar, No. 1 draft pick and one of the most statistically productive NFL quarterbacks in recent history, he was a freshman struggling to lead the No. 9 Bulldogs in Week 4 against Colorado.
Enter Joe Cox, a redshirt freshman at the time. Trailing 13-0 as the fourth quarter started, UGA rallied behind a pair of 20-yard touchdown passes from Cox, who completed 10 of 13 attempts for 154 yards for a passer efficiency rating of 227.2. The 14-13 win kept Georgia undefeated.
He beat South Carolina in 2009
Beyond that one relief appearance, Cox played sparingly over the next few years as Stafford led the way. In 2009, however, he took over as the starter and produced 2,584 yards and 24 touchdowns, at that time the second most in program history.
Just over 200 of those yards came against South Carolina, as Cox completed 17 of 24 attempts against the Gamecocks for 201 yards, two touchdowns and one interception. The game itself was a wild one — that one interception was returned for a touchdown, South Carolina came up with a safety, Georgia returned a kickoff for a score and the Bulldogs just barely managed to hold on. USC QB Stephen Garcia’s final comeback attempt ended with a turnover on downs at Georgia’s 7-yard line, giving UGA a 41-37 win.
He’s had a rapid rise as a coach
After graduating from Georgia in 2009, Cox didn’t go pro, and he didn’t immediately jump into the coaching ranks like so many do. Instead, he got into sales, according to Dawg Nation, hawking orthopedic products and scholastic supplies. After a couple years he returned to football at the high school level, getting his first paying job as a quarterbacks coach at Mallard Creek High in Charlotte in 2013 before being promoted to offensive coordinator in 2014.
That’s when Mike Bobo took a chance and added him to his staff at Colorado State, where he rose from graduate assistant to tight ends coach to wide receivers coach. Now, seven years after his first coaching job, he’s landed on an SEC staff.
He’s got a rep as a talented recruiter
Working at Colorado State over the past five years, Cox was consistently rated as one of the best recruiters in the Mountain West conference by 247Sports. His prowess on the recruiting trail helped the Rams finish second in the conference to Boise State in 247Sports’ team recruiting rankings three times in four years.
At South Carolina, Cox will help recruit Charlotte, the area he grew up in and where he won two state titles at Independence High School, extending down into the Rock Hill area, Muschamp said.
“‘Done a really good job recruiting, a really good evaluator and an outstanding football coach,” Muschamp said of Cox.
He’s worked with Mike Bobo for a decade
Between his time at Georgia and Colorado State, Cox has spent 10 years working under South Carolina’s new offensive coordinator as a player and coach. The two have a strong relationship, and when Bobo arrived in Columbia, he went to Muschamp and urged him to pick up Cox.
“It was very evident to me early in the process, talking to Mike about coming here, that he wanted somebody to be with him that he trusts and knows and understands the concepts and things that he wants taught,” Muschamp said.
Having someone like that with him will help ease Bobo’s transition, Muschamp added.
He continues the Georgia-to-South Carolina pipeline
With Cox’s addition to the staff, South Carolina’s staff of 11 coaches now has five guys who either played or coached at the University of Georgia — Cox, head coach Will Muschamp, offensive coordinator Mike Bobo, wide receivers coach Bryan McClendon and running backs coach Thomas Brown.
This story was originally published January 10, 2020 at 9:07 AM.
