So, Mettenberger is gone; booted from the program with nothing but a simple "team rules violation" to see him out the door. I know it drops the QB chase down to two, but I say good riddance. It's nothing against ZM personally, but why invite more trouble to the program? He did perform the best of all the QB's at G-Day, but I think we can recover...especially since he was going to miss game one (at least) anyway.
The real story here is "why" he was booted. According to Claude Felton, there was not a new incident that occurred. That must mean that the violation stemmed form last month's arrest down in god's country. What are the realistic possibilities here:
1. Since, as the Remerton police report, the investigation into the Spring Break incident is still ongoing, perhaps some detail has popped up that Richt didn't know before. Whether it be battery, sexual assault, or some other extra charge heretofore unmentioned, it must certainly have been big to earn the big boot.
2. This one's more likely in my mind: Richt imposed a team level punishment on ZM and said QB didn't hold up his end of the bargain. Perhaps it was local community service, Habitat work, tutoring, etc, and the kid just flaked. Or, maybe he thought his G-Day performance earned him a pass on disciplinary expectations.
Either way, he's gone now. And, while it might be a loss of a talented kid, I like the precedent it sets going into 2010; that's two players kicked off the team in a month. And that's a great image boost to a coach and a program who have seemed lax on the disciplinary front in recent seasons. Yep, now Zach's free to transfer and play at a smaller school somewhere. Hey, maybe he can play for Valdosta State - since he seems to like it down there so much and all.
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UPDATE: Hey, there might be a silver lining here after all: Christian LeMay, possibly the highest rated QB of the class of 2011*, has moved UGA higher on his list now that the QB race has simplified.
UPDATE 2: Oh yeah, almost forgot: Suck it, Oconee County. You wannabe elitist, white-flight, racist pieces of shit. Where's your hero now?
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*UGA is also on Braxton Miller's, another 5 star QB prospect, looooong list.
The teams of the last few years have been very FSU-esque. Thing is, Richt takes action when players get into trouble, so the question becomes: Do we just sign rowdy players, or is the discipline plan not set up well?
ReplyDeleteI don't think our players are more rowdy when it comes to legal infractions. Compared to Bama, UT, or UF, our legal concerns are small potatoes: underage, suspended license, etc.
ReplyDeleteOn the field, however, they're a too loose - personal fouls, unsportsmanlike, etc. That's what I hope shapes up.
I love that FSU is the benchamrk by which to measure whether a program has legitimate "legal issues" or not. I will admit that I have never seen comprehensive data on this subject, so I would love to see an objective analysis of per capita crime rates by program and year. Would be interested to know if it validates this widespread perception or demonstrates the impact that media coverage per incident has on overall viewpoints...
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