They’re both given credit for having a plan when seemingly random events occur which impact SEC football.
… Zach’s father Bernie and mother Tammy, who has worked in Georgia’s football office with Richt for a decade, recently visited their son at LSU, which is a popular pick to win the national championship next season partly because of Mettenberger’s addition at quarterback.
“The facilities at LSU are just off the chart. He loves it there. The food is out of this world,” his father said. “He just went duck hunting with one of his tight ends. We feel like things have worked out. He grew up a Bulldog fan. He was practically raised in that family. My wife has worked in the Georgia football office since he was 8. We always thought he’d be at Georgia, but I think we may have pushed him there too much. Maybe God had a plan for Zach to get kicked out of Georgia and to win a national title at LSU.”
I’ve never been that comfortable with the concept of the Almighty One as micromanager, but so be it. It’s just that if there was a plan, our Heavenly Father sure chose some unusual agents of change.
… Mettenberger’s father and Cowart each say that Mettenberger was a victim of timing and circumstances when he was kicked off of the Georgia team. He was arrested on March 7 during spring break – just two days after Pittsburgh Steeler quarterback Ben Roethlisberger was 154 miles away in a bar in Milledgeville, Ga., and later accused of sexual assault. The Roethlisberger story drew national headlines for weeks. He ended up not being charged, but he was suspended for six weeks by the NFL for breaking its personal conduct policy.
Also at this time, Richt was dealing with a string of alcohol-related arrests stretching back several months. Cowart, who worked in the Georgia football office as a student, feels Richt was pressured by Georgia president Michael Adams and then-athletic director Damon Evans to release Mettenberger.
“He probably got punished for what some other Georgia players did,” Cowart said. “And you had the Ben Roethlisberger incident. And Michael Adams was up for the appointment of president of the NCAA. If it had happened six months before, he wouldn’t have gotten kicked off.”
Funny, you’d think God would let Mark Richt know before Adams and Evans that it was the right time for a move.
Get The Picture 
Mettenberger, Jamar Hornsby, Newton, Masoli…
The SEC West. Where the rest of the country’s expelled criminals go to play.
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+1
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“He probably got punished for what some other Georgia players did” – Uh, no, he got punished for doing what he did and then lying about what he did (or vice versa). Although, the actual deeds and the lying were all parts of God’s plan.
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That’s the big point. He lied to the coaches about what he did. This may be archaic, but dishonesty is a greater sin than getting a little stinky finger. I know the girl is truly hurt, but I still feel lying is worse in the big scheme of things.
As an aside, I smile when people say in hindsight that things were G_d’s plan.
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What a joke! God’s plan for his child invovles him sexualty assualting a girl. This man must not have a daughter. And didn’t Mett plead guilty?
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Sorry for the typos. Typing to fast at work
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I know HE can make good out of bad, but you are right, a young girl was assulted for this to happen. Why not rent a moped, emerge from an alley with a suspended license and fail to remember your middle name? (God’s normal non-violent m.o. to get UGA players in trouble!)
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LSU with Mettenberger at qb is actually a scary thought. Kids going to be good on that team. However, I’m way more excited about the potential of Lemay. Really hope he can stay redshirted this year.
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But remember, we don’t know any more about Mettemberger than we knew about John Brantley coming out of Florida’s spring game.
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Denial is not just a river in Egypt. I guess if it helps you get through a bad period in your life it is ok. I too believe that Mark was pressured to kick him to the curb and it was at an awful time for the program.
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If the stories are true about Mett lying to Richt about what happened, I don’t think the decision to dismiss was the result of Richt being pressured.
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Maybe, but see the way WE has been handled.
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That’s comparing apples to Volvos. We have no reason to believe Ealey lied to Richt about anything, he failed to follow-up on things he promised to do. That’s not a lie, per se. Also, Ealey’s transgressions were of the traffic and team rules variety, NOT sexual assault.
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I know people who went to school with Mett, and they say he was a uber-arrogant s.o.b. Sounds like the apple doesn’t fall too far…
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Don’t sexually assault a woman in a bar next time, you poor, poor thing.
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“If it had happened six months before…” Then it would still have been sexual assault, just in the Fall rather than Spring. What a prick.
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On the 8th day God told a redshirt freshman QB at UGA to stop by Valdosta for Spring Break and lift a girls shirt up over her head.
And so it passed.
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But was she holding an apple? Was a serpent nearby?
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making mett out to be the victim in this is pretty offensive.
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What? You want he should be held accountable? In case you had forgotten, this is America where there is always another factor that excuses/justifies bad behavior. ZM’s dad is disappointing.
I also had heard the dismissal was for lying, not the offense. Makes sense if this was Mett’s first offense.
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Why is it so hard for people to just shut up? I am sure the Senator would tell you that one of the hardest parts of a Lawyer’s job is getting clients to remain silent. No hard feelings toward Mett or his family, but don’t try to defend the indefensable.
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Get this, the Cowart guy who’s quoted is Mett’s attorney. In addition to his quote above, there’s this from him:
“Zach got punished very severely. He paid a very steep price for one night of going out with his buddies.”
Mr. Cowart, do as everyone on this blog is suggesting and shut yourself and your client up.
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Love it. It was just a night out with his buddies. Boy, if I had a dime for every time my boys and I went out to a bar and got obliterated and de-clothed women and groped them and then tangled with the police, I’d be a rich man.
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I agree with all of the above comments about Mett including that he was an a-hole (heard that from a friend whose kid plays for UGA and knew Mett well) and that what he did was indefensible. That said, everybody else on the team who got into trouble got a second chance. Mett didn’t. Why? We all may live to rue that day.
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I will never rue the day, even if we were to lose the SECCG to Mett and the Tigers. I’ve got three daughters, and what kind of message would that send to them? Cheering for a guy that treats women that way. I believe in second chances, but not without consequences. His second chance is at LSU, and being kicked off the team he loves is the consequence.
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Well said. Mayor, there are some offenses which are going to get you thrown out of here without a second chance, and that’s one of them. Or, at least, it should be. Then again, Mettenberger DID get a second chance with UGA. He had a chance to fess up to it with Richt, and he didn’t. That’s why he went through spring drills after the arrest. It wasn’t until Richt learned that Mett had lied to his face about the incident that he got thrown off the team. Two strikes, you’re out.
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if God is just like Lane Kiffin where does this leave Layla ?
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“That said, everybody else on the team who got into trouble got a second chance. Mett didn’t. Why?”
Because Richt gave this octopus jackass a chance to come clean and the kid lied to him. It seems Richt does not appreciate being lied to.
Lots of Georgia players have gotten hooked up for silly reasons, most of which involve minor traffic offenses or other various things young college kids do. Mettenberger got shit faced and pawed some poor girl in a bar; that’s a jackass move. Richt is an honorable guy and a father, and he dropped a well deserved hammer on Mett.
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Timing and circumstance huh? The timing was that he was under age and the circumstance was that he assaulted a girl.
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I believe if his dad I would just have said, he made a mistake, he has learned from it and we are grateful that he has been given a second chance. Talking about it not being that bad and that Richt picked on him and that it is all for the best because NOW he will win a national title so it really doesn’t matter what he did in the past is not exactly the message I would want to be sending out. Not a way to win a lot of fans in his sons corner.
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Hubris. A spiritual lesson unlearned will be repeated. The consequences will be ever widening and ever worsening.
Let’s hope Zach has learned more than his dad…
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Yeah, it’s not like forcing yourself on a woman who clearly isn’t interested in you deserves some form of punishment. Yeah.
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If Mett wins a title with LSU, then either:
1) There is no God.
2) God hates Georgia.
And the absolute lack of class it takes to invoke “God’s plan” when your kid sexually assaulted a woman…… wow, just wow.
I am glad we don’t have that scumbag on the team.
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I hope we all hold ourownselves to the same standards we seem to want to impose on a college kid.
Mettenberger made a bad mistake and some bad decisions afterwards and paid a pretty high (for him) price for both.
That his parents are trying to support him is hardly a shock, it is what parents are supposed to do….ask Cecil.
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I don’t have a problem with Mett’s parents supporting him.
I do have a problem with them throwing Mark Richt under the bus to do so. And using “God’s will” as an explanation for Mett’s journey to LSU is deplorable, too.
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I hope we all hold ourownselves to the same standards we seem to want to impose on a college kid.
Well, I’ve never sexually assaulted a woman (of any age), and my parents have never tried to excuse it away, so while I’m hardly a perfect person, I think I’m good to go as far as that particular criterion is concerned.
It’d be different if this were another one of those expired license/registration things, because as infuriating as all that stuff is to us as Georgia fans, we’ve all been 19 before, and can vividly remember times when we were careless enough to let something like that slimp. I dare say we’ve all committed the horrific offense of “emerging from an alley” once or twice, too.
But look, it’s just not that hard to keep from sexually assaulting a woman. I’m hardly the most mature or responsible person you’ll ever meet, yet I’ve managed to avoid that particular offense for going on 33 years. And while I’m all for forgiving and giving kids a chance to redeem themselves from their mistakes, the fact that Mettenberger then lied to Richt about it, and that his parents are now trying to pass him off as a “victim” of circumstance, leads me to believe that Mett is an ongoing character risk we’re better off without.
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Thank you. Scorpio, you act like this was just something that everybody does and Mett just happened to be the guy who got caught. Turns out women have a right to say no, and a woman not to have their clothes pulled up or down or off when in a bar. I’ve been about as drunk as you can be in downtown Athens without dying, and as a result I was around some of the most beautiful women on the earth, and I managed to avoid assaulting any of them. This isn’t a tough line to toe.
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What a joke!
The reason this is an issue is because of the parent’s lame excuses and deplorable attempt to label this as “all part of God’s plan.”
It was God’s plan for Mett to sexually assault a girl? Seriously?
It is the fault of the program/Richt that Mett did this and then lied about it?
I hope Mett breaks his leg. Entitled scumbag with scumbag parents.
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