Tammy Mettenberger, a longtime administrative assistant in the Georgia football office, was given this week off by Bulldogs Coach Mark Richt as the team prepares for Saturday’s game against LSU.
Richt figured it would be the best thing to do because Mettenberger’s son, Zach, is LSU’s starting quarterback.
“The big thing was, you can imagine how awkward it could be all week for her,” Richt said. “So we just thought it would be a good idea to do that. I told her to just enjoy it and maybe do some things that normally you don’t get to do this time of year.”
Zach Mettenberger, who once competed with Aaron Murray to be the Bulldogs’ starting quarterback, was dismissed from Georgia in 2010 after pleading guilty to misdemeanor sexual battery. He transferred to Butler County (Kan.) Community College, played well there and returned to the SEC at LSU.
“There’s so much put into this game that has nothing to do with the game that actually goes on between the snap and the whistle,” Mettenberger told reporters after Monday’s practice. “The worst part is my mom has to deal with a lot of this stuff, too.”
Mettenberger, a fifth-year senior, has completed 59 of 91 passes (64.8 percent) for 1,026 yards and 10 touchdowns with just 1 interception this season.
“He’s played well and he’s continuing to develop,” LSU Coach Les Miles said. “This is a game where he’s fortunate to have a very quality team that’s going to Georgia with him. All he has to do is play quarterback.
“I’m not looking for anything more or less than the guy we’ve seen here for the last four games.”
Mettenberger grew up around the Georgia program, which made his dismissal particularly tough for Richt.
“It’s difficult any time a situation gets to the point where you have to dismiss a guy from the team,” Richt said. “To do it to Zach, knowing Zach for as long as we’ve known him and his mom and dad, they’re family to us.
They’re still family to the Georgia program, so it was very difficult.
“I think he understood. It wasn’t easy for me, and it wasn’t easy for him. I’m proud of how he responded to it.”
SEC homecoming II
Joker Phillips, who spent a combined a 23 years at Kentucky as a player, assistant coach and head coach, will be on the visiting sideline as Florida’s receivers coach when the Gators play the Wildcats on Saturday night in Commonwealth Stadium.
Kentucky fired Phillips after last season, when the Wildcats were 2-10, including 0-8 in the SEC. His three-year record at Kentucky was 13-24.
“Joker’s a professional,” Florida Coach Will Muschamp said. “He’ll handle it the right way.”
As Florida’s coach and as a defensive coordinator at LSU and Auburn, Muschamp has coached against schools where he used to work. One of Florida’s biggest rivals is Georgia, where Muschamp played.
“Any time you spend a large amount of your life somewhere as a player and then as an assistant coach and then as a head coach, certainly you’re invested in that university,” Muschamp said. “You do feel a little different going back to a place like that where you spent so much time.
“People don’t realize the amount of time and effort we put into what we do, giving our time to our young people and our dedication to the administration and all the things involved in the university. And then when you’re not there anymore for whatever reason, it takes a little part away from you.
“You always leave something where you’ve been before, and I’m sure Joker feels the same way.”
Gus & Lou
When the American Football Coaches Association annual convention was held in Orlando, Fla., in 2010, Gus Malzahn took the opportunity to reach out to Lou Holtz, who won 249 games in 33 seasons as a college head coach, including a 60-21-1 record at Arkansas in 1977-1983.
Holtz works for ESPN but lives in Orlando. Malzahn and Holtz had a breakfast meeting in 2010 - when Malzahn was Auburn’s offensive coordinator - and Malzahn and his wife, Kristi, later visited Holtz’s home.
“We’ve had a very good relationship since then,” Holtz said Monday when he was asked about Malzahn during a speaking engagement at the Northwest Arkansas Touchdown Club in Springdale. “He’s a wonderful individual, and very good football coach.”
Malzahn has led Auburn to a 3-1 start in his first season as the Tigers’ head coach.
“He’ll build a good football program down there,” Holtz said.
“He really is an excellent offensive mind, and not only is he very entertaining in what he does, he utilizes the talent he has to fit into a system.”
Welcome back
For the first time since Phillip Fulmer was fired as Tennessee’s coach after the 2008 season, he attended a Volunteers practice Tuesday.
Fulmer, invited to practice by first-year Vols Coach Butch Jones, didn’t speak with the media but issued a statement through Tennessee.
“It was a little emotional, being the first time back,’’ Fulmer said.
“I’m glad to be here. As I told them, any way I can help.’’
Fulmer led Tennessee to a 152-52 record, including the 1998 national championship.
“He’s one of those individuals who was instrumental in getting our 800-plus program wins, and to be able to have him back, what a great resource,” Jones said. “That’s one of those things that makes Tennessee who we are.”
Return trip
Ole Miss is playing for the second year in a row at Alabama, where the Crimson Tide beat the Rebels 33-14 last season.
The scheduling situation came about as the SEC revamped its schedule when expanding to 14 teams and because Ole Miss asked that it not play road games at Alabama and LSU in the same season.
Rebels Coach Hugh Freeze said the experience of playing at Alabama last season should help for Saturday’s game.
“Even though the scoreboard showed that they beat us fairly good, I think some of our kids took great confidence out of that game that kind of helped us play better the rest of the year,” Freeze said. “We didn’t seem like we were over matched in the physical part of the game.
“We gave up some big plays and we turned the ball over, and you’re not going to beat them if you do that, but out of the 80 or so snaps they had offensively, we could probably look at 65 of them and feel really good about what we did.”Gators lose top tackle
Florida will be without defensive tackle Dominique Easley, one of the team’s best players, for the remainder of the season.
Coach Will Muschamp said Wednesday that Easley tore the anterior cruciate ligament and medial meniscus in his right knee during a noncontact drill in practice a day earlier.
Muschamp said earlier that Easley “tweaked” his knee and added “we think he’ll be fine.”
Easley, though, made it clear on his Twitter page that he was done for the year.
The school clarified things with a statement from Muschamp.
Losing Easley is a significant setback for a defense that leads the SEC in just about every major category. Easley had four quarterback hurries and two tackles for loss this season.
SEC top to bottom
RK (PREV.) TEAM RECORD COMMENT
1 (1) Alabama 3-0 Will look to get running game going vs. Ole Miss
2 (2) LSU 4-0 Mettenberger returns to Georgia to face Bulldogs
3 (3) Texas A&M 3-1 Johnny Manziel and Aggies visit Arkansas
4 (4) Georgia 2-1 Offense is rolling with Murray and Gurley
5 (5) South Carolina 2-1 Road trip to Central Florida
6 (6) Florida 2-1 Will lean on defense more than ever with Driskel out
7 (7) Ole Miss 3-0 Traveling to Alabama for second year in a row
8 (10) Missouri 3-0 Ready to welcome ASU to Columbia
9 (12) Vanderbilt 2-2 Taking on McGee and UAB
10 (9) Arkansas 3-1 Running game has to control ball vs. Aggies
11 (8) Auburn 3-1 Open date to get ready for Ole Miss
12 (11) Tennessee 2-2 Glad for home game vs. South Alabama
13 (13) Mississippi State 2-2 No problems vs. Troy
14 (14) Kentucky 1-2 Hasn’t beaten Gators since Reagan was president
Game of the week
No. 6 LSU at No. 9 Georgia
2:30 p.m. Central Saturday, CBS
Georgia and LSU first played in 1928, but they haven’t met often since then. Saturday’s match up between the hedges at Sanford Stadium will mark just the 30th Georgia-LSU game, with the Tigers holding a 16-12-1 advantage. The teams last played in the 2011 SEC Championship Game, when LSU rolled to a 42-10 victory in Atlanta. Saturday’s game figures to be a lot tighter than that, with LSU’s rebuilt defense trying to slow Georgia quarterback Aaron Murray (346.7 passing yards per game) and tailback Todd Gurley (127.5 rushing yards).
By the numbers
623◊Margin by which LSU has outscored its opponents in the first quarter
1986◊Last time Kentucky beat Florida
132.0◊Rushing yards per game for Alabama, which ranks last in the SEC
“Overheard”
“I’m sure he’s tired of talking about it. It’s just probably a distraction to him and their team, but as soon as everyone hits the field Saturday all that talk is going to be gone. It’s just going to be line up, play football and have some fun.”
- Georgia quarterback Aaron Murray on LSU quarterback Zach Mettenberger’s homecoming to play the Bulldogs
Sports, Pages 20 on 09/26/2013