Georgia now ‘even more attractive’ to elite QB prospect Christian LeMay
The silver lining in the whole Zach Mettenberger situation at Georgia may be in the way it will affect recruiting at the quarterback position for 2011.
Christian LeMay of Matthews, N.C., one of the top quarterback prospects in the country, is really liking the depth chart at Georgia. (Special photo)
Christian LeMay, arguably the top quarterback prospect in the country for the Class of 2011, already had the Bulldogs in his Top 5. But after Mettenberger was dismissed for disciplinary reasons on Sunday, the father of the Matthews, N.C., athlete thinks Georgia now may be hard to beat.
“Yeah, I think it definitely helps Georgia,” the Rev. Stacy LeMay said as he drove to Atlanta from Charlotte on Monday. “Christian feels even better about the situation, and he already liked Georgia a lot anyway. He has always felt very comfortable with Coach Richt. They have similar philosophies in life and in football. The possibility before this was pretty encouraging anyway. Now Georgia’s situation has become even more attractive.”
In fact, these latest developments could move up LeMay’s timeline for making a decision. He and his father decided some time ago that he would name a clear-cut leader — but not make a full-out commitment — by summertime. Now they may not wait until the end of the month to make that annoucement, which could only help the Bulldogs’ cause.
“We’re starting to feel good about everything and may not have to wait as long as we thought,” Mr. LeMay said. “We had a long discussion about everything [Sunday] night. We’ve gotten around a good bit to see a lot of places and we feel like we know what’s out there. It could possibly be by the end of the month now.”
That doesn’t mean the Bulldogs are a lock. They will continue to get fierce competition from Clemson, Auburn, Texas A&M and Notre Dame, the other four in his top five. But after making four trips to Athens since the end of last season, it was already clear LeMay was closely observing the landscape at UGA and serious about signing there.
“He felt pretty good about coming in and competing for the position already,” Stacy LeMay said. “This is why it was important for us to go see their practices. At a Division I-A school you have to compete for a position no matter what. So we wanted to see who was competing. All of them are good but, no offense to them, he wasn’t deterred by any of the players that were there. Christian feels like he can compete with them. And we felt like [Mettenberger] was probably the leading guy from the practices we saw, at least potentially. Big guy, very strong arm, quick delivery. It’s an interesting situation. Let’s just say it makes Georgia very attractive.”
LeMay is very attractive to college recruiters. The 6-foot-2, 200-pound athlete passed for 3,296 yards with 44 touchdowns and just two interceptions in leading Butler High to an undefeated record and the North Carolina 4A state championship last season. Scout.com currently rates him No. 2 in the nation at the position.
Meanwhile, if LeMay does indeed decide on Georgia, he hopes to make an impact on the Bulldogs’ recruiting going forward.
“One of the reasons he’s considering coming out a little earlier is because he’d like to influence some of the top player to come with him,” Mr. LeMay said. “A lot of the top prospects are calling him and asking him what he’s going to do. They’re communicating with each other. If he decides to go there he’s going to get on board and start getting some more players there.”
Mr. LeMay said that one of the prospects his son talks to often is North Paulding wide receiver Christian Conley, who committed to the Bulldogs this past Friday.
As for the Mettenberger news, Mr. LeMay said they heard about it as the news was breaking on Sunday.
“Somebody called us and said they saw it on a website and we went and looked it up,” he said. “I’m sure that it was a very difficult situation for Coach Richt with his mother working there and all. But I think it’s a solid decision by Coach Richt to uphold the standards the Georgia people expect.”
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339 comments Add your comment
JD
April 20th, 2010
4:35 am
Wow, there is nothing good about this. Dawgs just lost the best spring preformer QB. In the fall fans went nuts about the savior Hutson signing, then went nuts when Marshall won his S Championship. Now after the trashing of Cox, and concern about Murray being injury prone and the loss of Mettenburger, guess what? We overlook everyone for this year and start putting all our hopes into LeMay. Do you actually think we would have won 8 games without Cox this year now? Just give up on this year already. We better start thinking about recruiting five good OL to take the place of the ones we will lose the next two years. After courting Marshall so actively we are taking a chance of losing him and LeMay if Lemay does not come to GA. I do not remember anyone suggesting Grey become an Offfensive Lineman. We are wasting scholarships and losing QB’s, whether it is One year like Cox and Shockley, or it is no one wants him to play like in Grey, or it is dismissal from the team like Messenburger. Guess what we still have only one experienced?????QB who lettered catching punts and cleaning up in the UF game.
Why would Marshall want to come to UGA after fans have turned to another wish list?
JD
April 20th, 2010
4:40 am
Enter your comments here
wiley
April 20th, 2010
7:43 am
For what its worth….Marshall seems to like GT and UGA. Both schools have a pretty equal shot at landing him and he has constant contact with both coaching staffs.
NoDogInThisFight
April 20th, 2010
8:05 am
I think its funny that people criticize Florida for its style of offense runs but neglect the fact that Bradford and McCoy operate out of the shotgun just as regularly. Its his release thats the issue not the offense. Watch Brantley as proof.
NoDogInThisFight
April 20th, 2010
8:06 am
And LeMay is just a potential silver lining that forces a 2 year wait before having a decent qb in Athens
Hmmmmmmm
April 20th, 2010
8:23 am
I really love the dawg fan who complains about gator fans…… Funny, UGA fans are second to none with obnoxious fans….. UGA fans are number 1 every year, when it comes to obnoxious!
GTBOOK
April 20th, 2010
8:29 am
I dont see how they could be so excited about convict university! If I was preaching the word of god I wouldnt let my son go to a college campus whos police department seems to have a quota to fill in locking up football players! I also wouldnt allow my son to play for a team or fan base that turned their back on a young man just because they wanna see someone else play! I know the young man had drinking issues, but there has been far worse players on that team and they never got treated like that! I for 1 dont believe for 1 sec that it was all about his behavior! Give the students athletes something else to do other than drink at bars and maybe they wouldnt get in so much trouble! UGA has a beautiful campus but other than that what else does it have to offer???? Oh yea, A JAIL CELL!!!!! LOL!!!!!
that game meant nothing to tech or coach johnson
April 20th, 2010
8:35 am
he could go to Tech GTbook aka baton twirling frat boy…its a real safe place…instead of between the hedges he could play between the slums…lmfao…i’d say you flagtwirlers at Bobby Dodd field better watch out for all the slum lords just off campus, your students are in the news every day for it and made front page news today
tim
April 20th, 2010
9:04 am
hey puppies the mighty Gators keep rolling along with a commitment from the #11 QB on scouts.com
GTBOOK
April 20th, 2010
9:05 am
Ha Ha! That may be true, but those are crimes being perpertrated against students not students committing the crimes! Im not saying GT is safer, nor am I saying I want this kid here! Im just stating the facts! Im a former player and I know how often kids get into trouble and lie to coaches! I have never seen a kid kicked off of a team for that! CMR and the uga nation will get whats coming to them this year! Yall have to be the worse fans in the world!!!!! I hope the truth comes out and yall are exposed for how this kid was rail roaded! Now I guess yall will turn to the next great hype.
CAMPUS SLUM
April 20th, 2010
9:15 am
The UGA campus looks like a slum after every home game,
because the intelligent dawg fans are too damn lazy to use a trash can.
GetOverIt
April 20th, 2010
9:35 am
This plays perfectly into the Dawg mantra: Just Wait Til Next Year!
g8trb8
April 20th, 2010
9:37 am
Coach Richt is a buster…recruits 2nd class athletes and coaches them up third class..uga would be better off firing him and the entire coaching staff and starting over from scratch…it has to be real hard to be a dawg fan these days…Adams and Damon should get out too…uga is in a world of hurt
The Real SugarHillDawg
April 20th, 2010
9:47 am
The kid from Cali–Wittek is the guy. LeMay can’t hold a candle to this kid.
BigDawg
April 20th, 2010
9:55 am
Unfortunately there is still no chance anyone will start for Georgia the next four years unless Murray gets hurt. There is a reason Mett was let go! We have never dropped a player for underage drinking and we have had hundreds of such incidences over the years. Mett was dropped because he did not have the skill set and was simply not as good as Murray. Murray is our future for the next FOUR years but of course our staff will downplay this to ensure we get a quality backup for the next several years. LeMay fits the bill.
NavyDawg
April 20th, 2010
9:58 am
Christian if you read this blog, I encourage you to go ahead and choose the Dawgs. Your signing could possibly have the impact on the present and future UGA football landscape as the signing of another top christian athlete who goes by the name of Mr. Herschel Walker. What other school or program you’re considering could you do that for? It’s a rethorical question, the answer is, NONE. Young man it’s one thing to make history, it’s another to be history.
HardTruth Soldier
April 20th, 2010
10:24 am
“The Package”, That is what you should call this kid, He has the arm, legs, mindset, and humbleness to lead at the next level. Gay-terds get used to losing to UGA, you’ve had your decade, now it’s our time to hit back, and with this kid and Conley will be hitting pretty hard soon!
jinx
April 20th, 2010
10:26 am
GTBOOK,
Worst fans in the world? I’m sure the “worst fans in the world” would be the ones that can’t even sellout a glorified high school stadium and need to be lured to games to watch their prized rapist compete with free cokes, hotdogs and Playboys.
HardTruth Soldier
April 20th, 2010
10:30 am
BigDawg love that your a Dawg, but are you serious? Let’s not make this a Greene-Shockley thing again. Everybody in the stands knew Shockley was a better QB, but Greene, due to hiswonderful talent around him, and CMR coaching him up looked good in controlling games. Pretty obvious now though with “Shock” managing to stay in the NFL alot longer!
HardTruth Soldier
April 20th, 2010
10:35 am
GTBook, Please take YOU AND YOUR HIGH SCHOOL ANTICS TO RIVALS.COM, where they reconize Tech. Because the SEC and the people in Athens don’t! Sisssssy’s
pcbmike
April 20th, 2010
11:38 am
OK, now I’ve got it. How the Dawgs determine their depth chart:
1st team – less than 5 misdemeanors and at least at 2.0 GPA in Bird Watching
2nd team – only 1 felony
3rd team – see America’s Most Wanted – may face 1 game suspension vs. Perfume State
seyed
April 20th, 2010
1:07 pm
Shockley was better than Greene? LOL!!! Thanks for the laugh, douche!!!
James
April 20th, 2010
1:16 pm
Shockley was not better than Greene and he didn’t last in the NFL as long as David either. Being demoted to the practice squad is not the same as “being in the league.”
covert
April 20th, 2010
1:28 pm
Please. Shockley had one, that’s ONE signature win while at UGA, that being the SEC championship game that UGA made by default, thanks to SC upsetting the Gators. This was against an LSU team that had suffered through Katrina, with no home stadium, who had their starting QB knocked out of the game soon after the second half began. If not for all that, and UGA’s two huge defensive plays and one special teams play, Shockley surely would have lost that game as well.
Shockley worshipers are a joke.
Bulldog59
April 20th, 2010
3:29 pm
Good point UGA89, give the kid a break. I believed ZM had an excellent chance of surpassing Murray before all the trouble started. We lost a prospect and he lost a golden opportunity; leave it at that. Hopefully, he learned a valuable lesson, specifically, tell the truth and take responsibility for your actions. We wish him well, somewhere outside the SEC.
DawginLex
April 20th, 2010
5:26 pm
stinger,
Why don’t you put that GT education to use? Didn’t anyone teach you when to shutup and quit making a fool of yourself?
JJ
April 20th, 2010
9:56 pm
I honestly think this kid will be up there with Stafford if comes to UGA, but Coach Richt needs to get him in thierr ASAP b/c the QB’s we have right now are only good as backups and thats about it. They arent proven starters, this kid came back from losing 31-7 in the 4th quarter to win 38-31, that should tell you something about his non-stop attitude to win no matter the circumstances, sounds like a peyton manning in the making to me. Mark Richt if your listening give this kid a key to the school and his personal parking spot and king suite if you have to so he will sign w/t us….enough said, GO UGA…
Gil
April 20th, 2010
10:56 pm
Georgia has more 1st round NFL Draft picks than any team in the SEC:
http://espn.go.com/blog/sec/post/_/id/10305/sec-first-rounders-the-last-decade
Gil
April 20th, 2010
10:59 pm
Looks like the Anti-Georgia, Anti-Richt Gator fans are still out in full force. Wow, 4 pages, must be really afirad of Georgia and Lemay together, can we get to 6?
Brainiac(Lifelong Dawg Fan)
April 20th, 2010
11:31 pm
GT Baby: Yall don’t “except” spelling over thar at Bunglebee U evidently. Back under your rock boy.
Happy Dawg
April 21st, 2010
1:11 pm
He will remain a dawg from high school to college! He may be the next tim tebow but in a pro style offense!
Happy Dawg
April 21st, 2010
1:13 pm
He makes players around him better as we can all see!
GT BABY
April 22nd, 2010
12:03 am
ahhhh…good ol’ fashion hate. I really do hate Georgia fans!
ATL XMAN
April 22nd, 2010
9:55 am
know that ga tech has 3 projected to go 1st rd today and even if they are gailys recruits they still are former ga tech football players so look for only 1 to go 1st rd if he is lucky and that is D Morgan..the rest will be 2nd -5th rounders. gailys recruits were going pro already but PJ offense hurt there chances of going higher..morgan is defense so he wasnt hurt by the high school offense. bey bey is way behind and so is dwyer..nesbitt might be drafted next year but after this year running the high school offense without any of gailys other recruits left, he might lucky to finish the season healthy enough to play football at all in the pros…poor guy…this will not help the future of ga tech getting top players on the offense side of the ball…
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Mike
April 22nd, 2010
10:26 am
Georgia since 2000 has led all SEC schools in players that got drafted by the NFL with a total of 57 players drafted in the NFL
http://www.mrsec.com/story/the-sec-in-the-nfl-draft
King Gator
April 23rd, 2010
10:34 am
Ron Mexico-
Send me my $5 you douche. Tebow picked – 1st round! Typical of a dawg fan now knowing what the “f” going on outside of Athens.
King Gator!
Clint Strawn
April 23rd, 2010
9:29 pm
Thats a true dawg. I can tell buy his atitude and i can already tell if he comes to UGA he will put us on the charts this season. Christian, Theres no other team with the Pride the Dawgs Carry to
athens then the DAWGS! go dawgs!
Chomp2wice
April 28th, 2010
1:04 pm
LeMay will be a Bulldog. His other 4 schools of choice has established QBs and depth, except for maybe Clemson. UGA doesn’t. Mike Bobo and CMR. Good program. At worst, it will be between Clemson, which is within his proximity and UGA.
Headlinin’: Count Notre Dame out of the mix for Big Ten expansion
August 25th, 2010
12:44 am
[...] • Lose some, win some others. One potential positive of quarterback Zach Mettenberger’s dismissal from Georgia over the weekend: It increases the Bulldogs’ chances of landing hotly-sought North Carolina prospect Christian LeMay, one of the top-rated quarterbacks in the 2011 class. Says LeMay’s father, Rev. Stacy LeMay, to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: "Yeah, I think it definitely helps Georgia. … The possibility before this was pretty encouraging anyway. Now Georgia’s situation has become even more attractive." [Atlanta Journal-Constitution] [...]