LSU Offers Mettenberger; How Is This Different Than Masoli’s Situation?

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According to KelinJohnson.com — the website of a former Georgia safety — former UGA quarterback Zach Mettenberger has received a scholarship offer from LSU for next year.

Mettenberger was dismissed from Georgia’s team this spring.  He pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor charges of sexual battery resulting from an encounter in a Valdosta-area bar.

Let’s assume for a few moments that Kelin Johnson has got this story straight.  (And kudos to him if he’s really breaking it.)


1.  Did LSU fans toss any stones at Ole Miss for trying to land Jeremiah Masoli?  I’m going to guess that that’s a big affirmative on that one.  I wonder if they now view Les Miles’ decision any differently than they did Houston Nutt’s decision?  I’m sure they do… I’m just not sure how.

Both quarterbacks got into off-field trouble.  Both quarterbacks were dismissed from big-time programs.  And then new big-time programs came in to scoop them up.

And Miles isn’t even waiting for the healing waters of a year in the juco ranks to wash away Mettenberger’s sins.  If he came onboard next spring, I would expect to hear his new coach talk about how he’s changed his behavior, proven his character, etc, etc in a year in juco.  But — if this story is true — Miles is already offering.  In other words, if he could get away with it, he’d like to grab him ASAP.  Kinda like Nutt, right?


2.  The NCAA was down on Ole Miss bringing in Masoli because in their view a player should not use the NCAA’s own rules to skirt discipline handed down by an NCAA member institution. 

And how exactly is Mettenberger’s case any different?  He’s using the NCAA’s transfer rules to leave a place where he can’t play to go to a place where he can.

Is it the year he’s to spend in juco that makes everything alright? 

A few of you old birds like me might remember the scene in “Purple Rain” when Prince convinces Apollonia that she needs to purify herself in Lake Minnetonka before he’ll help her career.  (She gets naked, jumps into the water and only then does he tell her that they are at a different lake, not Minnetonka.)

Well, apparently NCAA officials like to put on their long, sequined, purple dusters and encourage wayward players to dunk themselves in the waters of Lake Juco-tonka.

A junior college — even if you’re just arriving, it seems — will alter a man’s heart, mind, soul and behavior so much that he can be given a second shot in D1 football.


3.  Just wondering: Will Stewart Mandel over at SI.com now call Miles a “dirty” coach because he’s willing to trade integrity for victories?


4.  I have nothing against Mettenberger and I hope he gets a second chance.  I also don’t have a problem with Miles for giving him that opportunity.  Mettenberger has cleared himself with the legal system and paid a price (in reputation) for his actions.  Miles won’t be the last coach to offer him a full ride.

But Mettenberger’s case is awfully similar in spirit to Masoli’s.  Both players were booted from their teams.  One is a pariah because he dared to move from one school straight to another in order to play ball again.  The other is okey-dokey because he’s moving from one school to another, too, BUT he’ll go juco first.  And he’s getting scholarship offers before his time at The Rock really even begins.


If the issue is bad kids and second chances, what the heck does a junior college have to do with things? 

Why not just tell guys like Mettenberger and Masoli to just say (or throw) ten “Hail Marys” and then go along on their way? 

I don’t see how a season in junior college makes everything hunky-dory for the second-chance seeking player and the second-chance giving coach.