why does my backup exec have backup job in queued status instead of running?

Are all of the Backup Exec services running?

From the devices tab, are all the devices (including the server) running and ready?

Are there any Alerts active?

The jobs goes to queued for couple of minutes is normal as it detects the device for data to be written but if it is for a long time then make sure target device is available. Try to run some other operation on the target device to make sure it is accessible.

All devices are ready and no active alerts

It stays in queued status for a long time and that is the process that i have to go through each time this happens which is just a few times a week.

When your job starts and went to Queued mode check the device tab is there any green symbol on tape drive. also check the alert tab when job is in Q.

I presume that your job queues for a long time and then continue running.  Is there another job running while the job is queuing?  If this is the case, then it could be that the other job is holding on to some resource, either input or output.  If it is the only job running, the queuing could be due to some resource being busy, e.g., a disk is being defragmented or a housekeeping job is running on a database.  Check that all the resources are not being used by some other processes.