Hes Trevor Lawrences doppelganger: But can he play? -

Mabrey Mettauer was at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport last summer, just as his recruiting profile had popped up online, and a gentleman approached him with his son. He asked if Mettauer had time for a picture.

“I was like, ‘Sweet, people know who I am,’” Mettauer recalled.

A few moments later, he was on the ATL SkyTrain and a young woman walked up to him and asked to take his picture. She told Mettauer that her boyfriend would kill her if she didn’t at least ask. That’s when it hit him.

“These people think I’m Trevor Lawrence,” he said with a laugh.

This happens a lot to Mettauer, a four-star prospect in the Class of 2024 who plays at The Woodlands (Texas) High. Mettauer is very similar to Lawrence physically, from his height to his athletic physique to his long, blonde hair. But they don’t look that much alike. No serious football fan would have a hard time determining which one was Lawrence if the two were standing side by side.

But Mettauer has the look — that quarterback look — and it’s pure coincidence. He’s had long hair since he was young, and he can’t imagine cutting it. And he obviously can’t control his height. Those things are what make Mettauer, well, Mettauer.

So this is something he’s just going to have to live with, especially as his recruiting profile continues to grow.

“There are worse people for me to be confused with right now,” Mettauer said. “That’s what I want to become one day.”

Rated the No. 254 prospect and the No. 19 quarterback in the 2024 class, Mettauer has an impressive offers list that includes Arizona State, Arkansas, Baylor, Cincinnati, Florida, Ole Miss, Miami, TCU, Texas Tech, Wisconsin, LSU and others. This weekend he was at North Carolina to throw for Tar Heels coach Mack Brown and offensive coordinator Phil Longo. He left Chapel Hill with an offer.

Thank you @CoachPhilLongo & @CoachMackBrown for the invite to the showtime camp!#TarHeels
📸 @JacobTurnerTHI pic.twitter.com/u8tSd0bBqj

— Mabrey Mettauer (@MabreyMettauer) June 19, 2022

“I’m not chasing offers,” Mettauer said. “I’m just trying to take my recruitment day by day and get a feel for things. Like seeing, can I see myself working under this coach? Can I live here? It’s all very new, and the last thing I ever want to do is transfer. So I’m just taking it slow and learning as much as I can.”

Because he looks so much like Lawrence, the comparisons are inevitable. But let’s remember that Lawrence was the No. 1 player in the 2018 recruiting class and backed up the hype with a highly productive career at Clemson before becoming the top pick in the NFL Draft. Mettauer has a long way to go before we can compare him to his NFL doppelganger — at least for his play on the field.

But Mettauer is working on it. He got half of the quarterback reps for The Woodlands as a freshman and was the starter last fall as a sophomore, passing for almost 2,000 yards and 22 touchdowns and rushing for 390 yards and 13 more TDs. He was named Texas District 13-6A MVP.

Mettauer was always bigger than everyone as a kid, so he spent most of his days in youth football playing on the offensive line. But he always dreamed of playing quarterback, and he took advantage of his time at home during the pandemic to work out and throw to his brother.

His brother is 6-foot-5, 315-pound Oklahoma offensive lineman McKade Mettauer.

“I was tearing up his hands,” Mabrey Mettauer said, laughing. “He had to get new gloves every three weeks. I like to think that we helped each other out a lot.”

Metteuer’s personal coach is Sean Salisbury, a former NFL and CFL quarterback who played at USC in the 1980s. Salisbury is also known for his work as a broadcaster — he was an analyst at ESPN and hosts a show on an iHeartRadio station in Houston.

Salisbury has worked with more quarterbacks than he can remember, both one-on-one and in camp settings. Mettauer, he said, is one of the most physically gifted he has trained.

He wants Mettauer, however, to focus on fundamentals and not rely on his physical attributes. Mettauer won’t become a truly elite quarterback until he can combine an understanding of the game with his natural ability.

“We grind hard,” Salisbury said. “We get after it mentally and physically and emotionally. And just because you can throw a football doesn’t make you a quarterback. There’s so many more things that are deeper into it.

“I mean this affectionately: He still doesn’t realize how good he’s going to be. He’s big and physical and he’s got a monster arm and can throw off schedule. He can do it all.”

Salisbury and Mettauer work out in The Woodlands every week. They are trying to transform him into an elite quarterback. They are trying to transform him into Trevor Lawrence.

“If Trevor Lawrence has a movie made about him, Mabrey would have to be his stand-in,” said Salisbury, who sees kids frequently mistake Mettauer for Lawrence while they’re working out. “They’re physically a similar size. They both have a demeanor about them. Their hair is the same. They have the same shaped face. It is uncanny how alike they look. You see the reactions (from kids) when they see them. You see them think it’s Trevor Lawrence. Then you see him throw and people are like, ‘Whoa.’ You can’t believe he isn’t going to be 17 until the fall.

“I’ll tell you one thing — Trevor Lawrence is one hell of a guy for Mabrey to try to model himself after.”

Comparisons are fun. But there is one simple question.

“When people see him, the very next thing I’ll hear on Twitter or on my show is, ‘Can he play like him?'” Salisbury said. “Trevor Lawrence, when he was 16, he was a really good player and (had) already taken center stage and everyone knew who he was, and his game matched. I don’t mind the comparison, as long as Mabrey knows he still has a long way to go and has to put the work in, that’s good. He has his goals and what he wants to do, and it doesn’t stop him in his tracks. He can’t sit back and relax. It drives him to be recognized in the same way, not just the way he looks. He isn’t buying into any hype. He doesn’t think he has arrived.”

When Mettauer does arrive, maybe people will recognize him as someone other than Lawrence’s look-alike.

Maybe they’ll recognize him as Mabrey Mettauer.

(Photo courtesy of Mabrey Mettauer)

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