Georgia had a special guest at Wednesday's practice to talk about making good decisions.
Mike Lutzenkirchen, the father of former Auburn TE Philip Lutzenkirchen, spoke to the team. Philip Lutzenkirchen was killed in a car crash in June along with Ian Davis, a former Georgia baseball player.
Police believed that alcohol played a role in the crash, which happened when the car Davis was driving missed a stop sign, hit two ditches, flew into the air and overturned. Philip Lutzenkirchen was in the back seat. According to toxicology reports, both were legally drunk and Davis' blood-alcohol level was 0.17. The legal limit in Georgia is 0.08.
"He just wanted to talk a little bit about the legacy of his son and the fact that he made a massive amount of good decisions in his life and that he did a lot of great things on and off the field, really a guy that most people would look up to if you took his life in totality,” Georgia coach Mark Richt said Wednesday via the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “But there was a moment where he made a bad choice, and that bad choice cost him everything. I don’t think his father wanted that to happen to anybody else.”
The idea to have Mike Lutzenkirchen speak to the team was QB Hutson Mason's. Mason and Philip Lutzenkirchen were friends growing up in Georgia and Mason wears a No. 43 pin in honor of Lutzenkirchen in interviews.
Lutzenkirchen caught 14 touchdown passes in his Auburn career, which ended after the 2012 season.
“They were probably best friends in high school,” Richt said “He also knew Kolton Houston and Michael Bennett and Watts Dantzler; they competed against him in basketball. There was some familiarity with a lot of our guys in the room that the father identified with a little bit."
“Sometimes when you hear stories from a coach or just a speaker who is random it doesn’t hit very close to home. But when a father walks in there and talks to you about a guy that we all knew of and competed against and some knew very well … he did a nice job. I appreciated him doing that.”
Mason said this summer that he credits Lutzenkirchen with his recruitment to Georgia. The two knew each other since they were 7.
“Philip really helped me with the recruiting process,” Mason said this summer. “Once he was done (with recruiting), he got me in touch with all his recruiting contacts. He helped me get my highlight tapes and my name out there.
“He really was the older brother I never had.”
For more Georgia news, visit UGASports.com.
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Nick Bromberg is the assistant editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
From Dr. Saturday - NCAAF - Yahoo Sports - Father of former Auburn TE Philip Lutzenkirchen spoke to Georgia about decision-making
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