LSU football fans felt optimistic about the future of the team’s quarterbacks on National Signing Day in 2009.
 
Scout.com five-star recruit Russell Shepard, a dual-threat quarterback with a personality as large as his home state of Texas, and three-star quarterback Chris Garrett out of Tupelo, Miss., highlighted a top-rated recruiting class and were already enrolled at LSU.
 
Also, then-freshman quarterback Jordan Jefferson was coming off an MVP performance against Georgia Tech in the Chick-fil-A Bowl.
 
Much has changed since then.
 
The Tigers currently face a quarterback quandary with only two scholarship players under center, Shepard converted to wide receiver, Garrett left LSU, and two-sport prospect Zach Lee signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers this summer.
 
Stephen Rivers, a three-star recruit from Athens, Ala., helped ease some of the pressure when he committed to LSU on Aug. 6.
 
But LSU is seeking another arm for its 2011 recruiting class, and efforts have turned to former Georgia and current junior college quarterback Zach Mettenberger.
 
Mettenberger signed with Georgia in 2009 but was dismissed from the team in April after pleading guilty to two misdemeanor counts of sexual battery after inappropriately touching a woman at a Remerton, Ga., bar.
 
The Watkinsville, Ga., native was in a heated battle for the Bulldogs’ starting quarterback position with redshirt freshman Aaron Murray before transferring to Butler Community College.
 
Rivals.com recruiting analyst Mike Scarborough said LSU’s need for a quarterback and Mettenberger’s desire to return to the Southeastern Conference have spurred talks between the two.
 
The Tigers extended a scholarship offer to Mettenberger earlier this month, according to multiple reports.
 
“There’s been mutual interest and discussions between the two parties since before the season started,” Scarborough said.
 
Mettenberger said he plans to come to Baton Rouge when the Tigers face Ole Miss on Nov. 20, but for now he is focused on being the quarterback for the Grizzlies.
 
“I don’t really want to talk about it until after my football season at Butler,” Mettenberger said. “I’m taking a visit to LSU in November.”
Mettenberger, who has three years of eligibility after this season, is making the best out of his season at Butler.
 
The quarterback has lit up the junior college ranks for 970 yards, 12 touchdowns and only three interceptions through four games.
 
Mettenberger was a high profile prospect from Oconee County High School in Watkinsville as a Scout four-star recruit.
 
Rene Nadeau, college football analyst for TigerVision and ESPN, said the 6-foot-5-inch, 250-pound pocket passer could quickly become a viable option under center for LSU.
 
“The learning curve is shorter on a junior college kid,” Nadeau said. “He’s a big kid with good size. He could compete with Jordan Jefferson.”
 
Dean Legge, publisher of Georgia’s Scout affiliate DawgPost.com, thinks even more of Mettenberger’s skills.
 
“People ignored the fact that he has an NFL arm,” Legge said. “Zach’s going to play in the NFL.”
 
The signal caller’s career has already been a series of ups and downs after committing and later being dismissed from his dream school. Legge said Mettenberger had a tumultuous relationship with fans during his time at Georgia.
 
“He’s been misunderstood for as long as I’ve interacted with him,” Legge said. “They think he’s cocky. They think he’s brass, but a lot of quarterbacks are.”
 
Mettenberger’s incident at a Georgia bar came two days after it was revealed that Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger was being investigated for sexual assault charges at a Milledgeville, Ga., bar.
 
Legge said the timing of the two situations added to the negative public storm.
 
“I spoke with him after Georgia let him go, and he was disappointed. But he had it in his head he would come back and play football, probably in the SEC,” Legge said.
 
Scarborough said Mettenberger’s return to college football, possibly to LSU, would be the ultimate redemption for the quarterback.
 
“I haven’t talked to anyone in Athens who says LSU should stay clear,” Scarborough said. “Everybody loves a comeback story. Who’s to say he doesn’t come in and get back on the right track?”
 
Legge said Florida State, Cincinnati and Louisville have been on Mettenberger’s radar in the past, but the Seminoles would be the biggest threat to LSU because of his relationship with Florida State coach Jimbo Fisher, a former LSU offensive coordinator.
 
 
 
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Contact Michael Lambert at [email protected]