Zach Mettenberger, the former Georgia quarterback who was dismissed in May, will join LSU in the spring semester and be eligible for spring practice.

The Georgia native will compete for the starting job and have three years of eligibility left after playing this fall for Butler Community College in Kansas. Butler lost last weekend in the National Junior College championship game to El Navarro Junior College.

Mettenberger was apparently slated to be Georgia's starter this season, but was dismissed in May after pleading guilty to two counts of sexual battery stemming from an incident with a woman at a Georgia bar. He was sentenced to two concurrent 12-month probation periods, forced to pay a $2,000 fine and fulfill 40 hours of community service.

According to the quarterback, LSU expressed interest over the summer, and Mettenberger went to visit the team earlier this season.

"That was big for me," Mettenberger said. "That kind of let me know that getting back into the SEC was a possibility. Things were up in the air right after I left Georgia, so for coach Miles to offer me a scholarship at that point let me know he was really after me.

"I had actually committed to coach Miles and LSU at the Ole Miss game, but I didn't want to go public until my team finished our season because I thought it might become a distraction," he said. "I knew on the visit that weekend that it was where I needed to be."