ATHENS – Georgia coach Mark Richt and a group of Bulldogs players met with reporters Tuesday at the Butts-Mehre football complex for the weekly news conference. No. 9 Georgia on Saturday plays host to the No. 6-ranked Tigers of LSU in a game that, for the Bulldogs at least, will be a BCS national championship elimination game.

As might be expected, much of Tuesday’s discussion centered on Zach Mettenberger’s homecoming. The LSU quarterback started his career at Georgia, was dismissed by Richt, re-surfaced at Butler County (Kan.) Community College, and now has resurrected his career as the Tigers’ starting quarterback.

Mettenberger enters Saturday’s game with 1,076 yards passing and No. 2 to Aaron Murray – his former roommate – in the SEC in pass efficiency.

It promises to be a weird day for Mettenberger in Athens. Not only did he grow there, but his mother Tammy has worked in the UGA football office for nearly his entire life. Mettenberger first came to work with her as kindergartner and literally grew before the coaches’ eyes. He committed to Georgia.

“I am very happy for Zach and his success,” Richt said. “I’ve always liked him since he was a little boy. I’m really happy that he’s doing well. I don’t want him to have great success on Saturday, obviously. But other than that I’m really happy for him and his family. They are good people. He’s doing well. He’s thrown one pick all year long, and he’s thrown more touchdown passes in the first four games than anybody in the history of their school.”

I’ll have a full story on Mettenberger written later today that will run in tomorrow’s print edition and online at myAJC.com.

In the meantime, here are some of comments from today’s media session:

GEORGIA COACH MARK RICHT

On the quarterback competition between Aaron Murray and Zach Mettenberger when they were both freshmen at Georgia…

“We thought both of them were very, very talented. Even when they both committed to come to Georgia and signed at Georgia, we knew we were very blessed to have two guys that we thought were going to be really good. As they began to compete, I thought it was very close. I think Murray was a little bit more polished, in that he was in a high school system that was maybe closer to what we’re doing. I think every year of Zach’s life, he was with a different coordinator in a different system, at least from high school to college, and even this year. I don’t know if he’s gone two years in a row with the same offensive coordinator. Zach had some catching up to do in some of those finer points, but his talent was obviously very evident. So both of those guys we felt like we could win with at Georgia, and as it turns out, they’re both getting their opportunity to lead teams in this league and playing a game like this at the same time.”

On the difficulties of Mettenberger’s dismissal from Georgia…

“It was very difficult. It’s difficult any time a situation gets to the point where you have to dismiss a guy from the team. To do it to Zach, knowing Zach for as long as we’ve known him and his mom and dad – they’re family to us. They’re still family to the Georgia program, so it was very difficult. I think he understood. It wasn’t easy for me, and it wasn’t easy for him. I’m proud of how he responded to it. He went to junior college and did extremely well, and he got an opportunity to come back and go to a place like LSU, which is a tribute to him and how he’s put himself in tremendous position for his future. That’s what you hope for and you dream for these guys when they have an issue. Like I was saying before, sometimes when guys have issues, we can clean it up and he can have a great story here at Georgia. But sometimes when they have to leave, I just hope they can move forward and have great success. Nick Marshall (at Auburn) is the same situation. Some things like that happen, and they have success and it makes you feel good.”

On special teams…

“First of all, we have to find out where we went wrong and correct it. The good news on all of it is that everything is very correctable. Our kickoff coverage team was having a tremendous season up until that play (against North Texas), and you don’t want to define your whole season on one play, but it was significant. That’s the thing about special teams – it’s a one-play series. One mistake can cost seven points, and seven points can obviously cost a game. We were fortunate to have the issues on special teams that didn’t cost us the game. If we can make decent corrections through us communicating better as coaches and also by making sure we have the right guys in the right spots, I think we can clean it up.”

On Nathan Theus or Trent Frix at long snapper …

“They’re both working right now. We’ll figure that out at the end.”

On adding front-line players to kick coverage units . . .

“We want to get the best guys that can cover, no doubt. We want to be careful about it, but you’ll probably see a little bit more of that.”  

On the talent at running back for both teams …

“I mentioned theirs, and we have ours, and it will be interesting to see who can run the ball and who can run it well. Both teams are very capable of it, but on any given Saturday, you don’t know what’s going to happen. We like ours and I’m sure they like theirs, and I like theirs and they probably like ours. They’re just great players, and it’s going to be fun to watch.”

On the progress of Georgia’s defense …

“All we can do is what we can do, and that’s to give them the plan, line them up and play hard and fast. Hopefully we can continue to get better at tackling and communicating and all that. You talk about the teams that we’ve played, and we’ve played some pretty good offensive football teams. I’m not trying to make an excuse, but when a defense plays against a team that can really move it and score and has some veteran quarterbacks, you’re going to take some dings. You have to make some big stops like we did in that South Carolina game. That goal line stop was really the game changer, and sometimes that’s what has to happen. You look at Alabama and the Texas A&M game (this season). I think most people would say Alabama’s defense is pretty special and has been over time, but (Texas A&M put) 42 points on the board. 49-42, I don’t know who would have predicted that kind of score with those types of teams. You keep fighting like mad to not give up big plays. You fight like mad to get turnovers. You fight like mad to find ways to get a big stop and a momentum-changing stop somewhere along the way, and that’s what we’re trying to do.”

On performance of Georgia’s offensive line . . .

“We didn’t get as much movement as we’d like to sometimes in some of the run game last game. We didn’t have many issues with penalties or pass protection. We actually pass protected pretty well, but there were some times where we didn’t get as much movement as we’d like in the run game. Coach (Mike) Bobo made a good point last night, saying that when you run the ball the way we try to run the ball, there’s going to be some ugly, tough two or three-yard gains here and there. Every once in a while when you hit the crease, you have to have the perimeter block, and you have to have the guy make the other guy miss. You have to hopefully be able to take it to the house or get a big gain here and there because if a team is averaging six yards per carry, there’s probably a couple of 80-yarders in there and a bunch of one, two, and three-yard runs along the way. You just want to make sure you reduce the yards the best you can and get your third down as manageable as possible to hopefully make those.”

On Corey Moore and the rest of the secondary…

“Corey Moore being back from his injury was very helpful. Getting Josh Harvey-Clemmons back was good, so that helped a lot. Tray (Matthews) is growing as we go. Quincy Mauger has put himself in a position where with all of the other injuries to players, he’s gotten a lot more reps than maybe he would have otherwise. He’s taken advantage of them, and we like what he’s doing on special teams. We like what he’s doing in practice and the opportunities he’s had. We’ll probably see a little bit more of him, and we’ll see some of Connor Norman. As far as the corners are concerned, Shaq Wiggins got in the game a little bit and Sheldon Dawson got in the game a little bit more. We’re trying to build more depth in that area. (Brendan) Langley has been playing a bunch, and they’ve all been learning. The more times you go through it, the better off you should be in the future.”

On similarities between Georgia and LSU…

“(Les Miles) does a great job. He recruits well. It’s unique to me, and I’ve not coached there so I don’t know, but if there’s a really good player in the state of Louisiana, it seems like it’s just a done deal that the guy is going to LSU. We have a situation where we just have so many guys. We might have 150 guys that are Division I football players but we just can’t take them all, so you know a certain amount of your really good players are going to end up at another school. There’s just not enough room, and there’s fierce competition for it. He recruits well, he motivates well, and it seems like he’s a guy that the players really respond to well. I think just to be a head coach for 13 years and to be able to last as long as he has at his school and me at my school in this league, you’ve certainly had enough success to keep it going.”

GEORGIA PLAYERS

LB Amarlo Herrera

On the team’s mentality heading into this game …

“This is just an SEC game. That’s how everybody looks at it. I don’t think we look at it the way that everyone else looks at it. We’re just playing football and just trying to get the next win. It’s a good thing right now but by the time the game gets here everyone will probably be hyped and juiced up.”

OLB Jordan Jenkins

On Coach Mark Richt’s personality …

“Coach Richt can get pretty fired up. People don’t think he shows emotion, but he can get pretty amped up and pretty hyped up. This past week we really thought that he gave one of the best speeches he’s given in the past year or two. I really got pumped up after that. I know it wasn’t a top-10 team, but they were still a good team and it really got me pumped up to play that game after that speech.”

QB Aaron Murray

On LSU QB Zach Mettenberger’s homecoming …

“I’m sure he’s tired of talking about it. It’s just probably a distraction to him and their team, but as soon as everyone hits the field Saturday all that talk is going to be gone. It’s just going to be line up, play football, and have some fun.”

On Mettenberger and the LSU offense …

“Zach has gotten better and better every year. I think he feels very comfortable with their offense, their new scheme, their new coordinator. They look great as a whole offense. They’re really able to stay balanced. They’re very similar to us offensively in that they’re able to pound, pound, pound, get up there, throw the ball, move it through the air with some great receivers as well, so it’s going to be a huge challenge for us defensively. Zach is a big kid and can make all the throws, sideline to sideline, with a very big arm. He looked good when I was watching him the other day.”

On playing three top-10 teams in the first part of the season …

“It’s got to be some type of record to start off with three top ten teams in the first four games, but it’s been fun to play this type of game, in these atmospheres, against these teams. Everyone’s like ‘that must stink,’ but I think it’s fun. I think everyone on this team thinks it’s fun. It’s fun preparing for these big types of games, it’s fun playing in them, and it adds a lot more excitement to the week. I definitely think as a whole team we have grown over these past three weeks.”

WR Justin Scott-Wesley

On LSU’s defensive backs…

“They like to go press-man a lot so that’s going to be a challenge. They’re basically going to line up in our face and dare us to beat them. We’ve just got to be up for that challenge, and I feel like we have a group of guys who are going to step up to the plate.”