Could the M&M quarterback duel of AJ McCarron and Johnny Manziel featured earlier this month in Alabama's thrilling 49-42 win over Texas A&M be topped? If any other M&M QB tandem could do it, bank on Zach Mettenberger and Aaron Murray.
Two of the elite senior quarterbacks in the nation, both expected to be NFL rookies in 2014, meet for the first and only time in their careers on Saturday in Athens, Ga., as LSU visits the Bulldogs. Few know both better than Georgia coach Mark Richt, who has coached Murray for five years and coached Mettenberger at Georgia briefly before he was dismissed from school for disciplinary reasons. The two enrolled at UGA in the same signing class.
"We thought he was going to be a special player, and that's what's happened," Richt said of Mettenberger. "There's a big ceiling on him still. ... There's no doubt in my mind he'll play in the NFL."
Ask 5
In advance of the LSU-Georgia game, Daniel Jeremiah asked NFL executives which QB -- Zach Mettenberger or Aaron Murray -- has more pro potential. **More ...**
There's not much doubt in the minds of others, either. Mettenberger is playing the best football of his career this season, and at 6-foot-5, 230 pounds, he is ideally sized for an NFL pocket passer. At 6-1, Murray doesn't have the size, but he's rated the No. 34 senior NFL prospect in the nation, and the No. 4 senior quarterback by NFL Media senior analyst Gil Brandt. Murray is off to a red-hot start this season. He has completed 72 percent of his passes with seven touchdowns and only two interceptions. He's also been a career-long performer at UGA, making his 45th consecutive start and in hot pursuit of various career SEC passing records. Mettenberger's career, by contrast, has been late to bloom.
"I don't think you rattle a guy like that. I don't think that's necessarily the thought process," LSU coach Les Miles said of Murray earlier this week. "You pressure him with coverage and disguise. You pressure him with pressure up the field in his face. It's the mixture. Certainly he also has an issue when he hands the ball off and they don't gain yards. If they don't gain yards on a running play, the pressure falls back to the signal caller. But to rattle him, yeah, that's not something that's in the plan."
Follow Chase Goodbread on Twitter @ChaseGoodbread.
