In depth look at Zach 
Mettenberger (awesome)

by Lee Feinswog

really long, but a great read:
http://225batonrouge.com/article/20120731/225BATONROUGE01/120809998/1001/businessreport1005


some of the highlights:


ON HIS INVOLVEMENT IN THE SHADY'S INCIDENT LAST SEASON:

“I was in the back seat of a truck,” the lanky quarterback recalls of the one night a year ago that every Tiger fan wanted to talk about. The night when things went bad. “Everybody was out. It was my first camp, but it was a tradition. The last night of camp, we all go out and celebrate the end of camp. Getting through it is like freshman initiation; you're finally part of the team. So we all go out, and I'm in the back seat of a truck, and I literally had a front-row view of what went down, and I kept my ass in that truck the whole time and high-tailed it out of there as soon as I could.”


After leaving Shady's Bar, the players returned to the dorm. Even after what happened, some continued to celebrate.


“Y'all don't understand what's going to happen tomorrow,” he 
told them.
“I've been in trouble. I got arrested in a small town in Georgia, and I was thinking no one was going to find out. The next morning I'm on the front page of the 
Athens paper, the Atlanta paper, every newspaper.”


This is Zach 
Mettenberger. And if that night outside Shady's was his first real test as a Tiger, LSU fans are going to love this kid.


And when the consequences of the Shady's fight came down from the coaches, Mettenberger was ready.


“The next day, the hammer dropped,” he says. “We were with (strength coach Tommy) Moffitt, and he was running us to death. It was really miserable. But in a sense it brought us closer as a team, and it was kind of an us-against-the world kind of thing.


“The guys who were in it, they know who they are, and they made a mistake. But it was almost like, as soon as that happened, no one gave us a chance to win seven games, and we wanted to go out there and prove to everybody we're still a good team, and we're going to put up some points and knock people in the mouth. Thirteen-and-oh later, and no one was talking about the Shady's fight, really. It was a fun ride last year, and hopefully this year can be even better.”



ON HOW HE WAS RAISED A BLUE-COLLAR SOUTHERN BOY:

...this big kid who...dipped tobacco, drove a pickup in high school—“Oh, yeah. Ram 1500. 2001. White. Hand-me down”...


I took the chance going to JUCO (junior college) instead of working for my dad. My dad drives nails for a living, so hell no. He's a carpenter. I don't want to be a roofer or anything like that the 
rest of my life, so I said I'll give JUCO a try.”



ON HIS DRIVE TO BE A WINNER:

“I'm a fiery competitor,” he says. “I hate losing. I don't care if it's Jenga, freakin' jacks, video games, a pick-up game of basketball or the SEC Championship. I'm going to do everything I can to win a game. I guess I get that from my mom.” His mother, Mettenberger adds, is a redhead.
“She's a firecracker, so to speak,” he says. “I get a lot of my personality from her.

"That's why I came here over Texas A&M and Ole Miss and Arizona. I wanted to be a winner. And if college is my last time to play football—and I hope it's not—I wanted to do it being a winner. In high school I was never a winner. I lost, like, 27 games, and won, like, 15 or something in high school. Never had a winning record in a season. That's the real reason I came to LSU.”


ON THE BCS CHAMPIONSHIP GAME:

“Sometimes [the BCS championship game] hurt to watch,” he says. “I'm not knocking the two guys ahead of me, because me and Jarrett and Jordan had a great relationship, and I knew I wasn't going against Alabama at the time, but from the sidelines I would see stuff, and I'm doing the read and progression in my head, and I'm saying, 'Throw here,' and sometimes they might throw it to the wrong guy or force something. But overall they did a great job last year. I mean, we were 13-0, and people still want to [expletive] and complain. We're going to do what we have to do to win football games here. That's just how Les Miles is. It's how any coach would be.”



ON HOW HE HAS NO PROBLEM CHANGING THE PLAY IF HE THINKS IT'S THE RIGHT THING TO DO:

LSU was nearing the end of a 52-3 rout of Ole Miss in its next-to-last regular-season game. On third and 1 from the Ole Miss 26, when Head Coach Les Miles was obviously trying to run out the clock, Mettenberger ran a naked bootleg for 25 yards.


“I kind of called my own play on that one,” he says. “Coach Miles was kind of pissed, but it was a good play at the time. Saved my running back his life.


“I came off the field, and he said, 'What the hell are you doing?' I told him, 'Coach, they blitzed, and I didn't want to get Terrance McGee lit up.'”


"I could see where he was coming from,” Mettenberger says. “But at the same time, if it's 7-7 in the fourth quarter, and we're playing Florida in the Swamp, he's going to be loving it. Double-edged sword, I guess.”



ON BEING COCKY:

"Some people call me cocky, but you ask Tom Brady how he feels about his abilities, and he's going to say:

'I'm one of the best. There are a lot of things I need to work on, but I still feel like I'm one of the best in the business,' and I feel the same,” Mettenberger says(early in the article, it said Mett idolizes and tries to emulate Tom Brady)

“I want to go out there this year and show what I can do and win a bunch of football games. There are things I need to keep working on to refine my game, but I feel like I can compete and go against anybody"


ON THE 2012 LSU FOOTBALL TEAM:

Here's another thing fans are 
going to love. Mettenberger says this will be the tightest group of Tigers ever.


"I'm not knocking the guys from last year, but I've taken my offensive line out to dinner, and the guys last year never did that,” he says. “I've taken all the receivers out to dinner. When we play basketball, me and all the receivers get together, some of the linemen, too. We all try to do stuff together now instead of doing our own thing. I think that's helped a lot. We read each other's personalities better off the field, and I feel like that translates better to on the field. I think we're going to surprise people with our chemistry and timing as a receiving corps and me throwing the ball to them."

Earlier this year, senior receiver Russell Shepard tweeted that this season would be “an airshow” with Mettenberger under center. But the quarterback knows his place and the importance of a balanced offense.
Accordingly, he's fine with LSU continuing to be a run-first, pass-second football team.


“If you have six running backs who can start anywhere in the country, you're going to run the ball. You have linemen who average 6-4, 310 across the board, you're gonna run the ball. I think this year we're going to mix it up. It's not all about one guy and stats; it's about what the collective offense can do.”

 

Great read I really hope he pans out

 

1) seems to learn from his mistakes
2) Uh-oh...bulletin board material for the game in College Station
3) thinks a lot quicker on his feet than the last 2 QBs I can name
4) I hope his family is rich, because he surely buys dinner a lot for guys who I would guess are not light eaters!

 

phuck aTm

 

Great read. Can't wait for the season to start!

 

I had been telling myself that I would save my 1000th post for something significant rather than just a bandwagon 'me too' post. But I can't control myself. Mett has such a good head on his shoulders and seems to have learned from his mistakes. I can't wait for this season to start and for us to have a real QB again!

 

kinda seems like an asshole. hope he can throw.

 

Amen, brother, amen!

 

first fall scrimmage Saturday:

Quarterback Zach Mettenberger connected on 15-of-30 passes for 190 yards and two scores

backup quarterback Stephen Rivers was 6-of-10 for 100 yards.

Miles complimented the play of Mettenberger, who threw a 55-yard TD pass to Odell Beckham Jr. and a 31-yard scoring pass to James Wright.

Beckham Jr. led all receivers with four catches for 101 yards, while James Wright hauled in four passes for 57 yards and Shepard four for 16 yards.

Tharold Simon had an interception.

I thought we threw the ball better than we had (in previous practices). It was a good day, and a nice first scrimmage."