Gene Frenette: Kirby Smart must get a handle on Georgia football players' speeding issues

Apparently, when Georgia football coach Kirby Smith talks about the importance of his team keeping its foot on the gas to put opponents away in games, too many of his players think that mentality also applies when they’re behind the wheel.

The Bulldogs have had an inordinate amount of driving offenses the past six months, piling up tickets for speeding, reckless driving and street racing.

No infraction was worse than Philadelphia Eagles first-round draft pick Jalen Carter being involved in a tragic street-racing incident that killed recruiting staff member Chandler LeCroy and teammate Devin Willock on Jan. 15, coming right after Georgia’s second consecutive national championship celebration.

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LeCroy’s speed was clocked at 104 mph and with a blood alcohol content more than twice the legal limit. Carter was charged with reckless driving and racing.

There are currently two lawsuits pending against the UGA Athletic Association connected to that fatal crash, including one filed this week by Georgia staffer Victoria Bowles, who was critically injured and faces a daunting recovery. That lawsuit also names Carter and several others as liable for damages.

These offenses have reached the point where head coach Kirby Smart, who is scheduled to speak Tuesday at SEC Media Days in Nashville, may get as many inquiries about his team’s driving habits as their bid to become the first team in the AP poll era to three-peat as national champs.

Smart was already fuming last week over what he and the university felt was “unsubstantiated allegations, errors and possibly even fabrications” in an Atlanta Journal-Constitution story that labeled his program as being dismissive of sexual misconduct.

The university sent an extensively detailed nine-page letter to the AJC demanding a retraction from the paper and reporter Alan Judd for the June 27 article, which is a rare, extraordinary pushback against any media outlet.

But that damning piece is a totally separate issue from the driving-related infractions, many of them violations where some players were caught going a minimum 30 miles over the speed limit.

Given the gut-wrenching tragedy that rocked the program, it reflects poorly on Smart’s management of his players that there have been at least 10 reports of traffic-related moving violations since that fatal accident.

On Tuesday, while admonishing the AJC for a story Georgia claimed was “replete with errors,” Smart didn’t try to sugarcoat all the traffic offenses with some boys-will-be-boys explanation.

Georgia football has a driving problem and Smart knows he must do his part, by whatever means necessary, to fix it.

“I don’t know if we can ever eradicate speeding,” Smart said Tuesday. “I don’t know if that’s possible, but I’m going to damn sure try because I don’t think that what we’re doing right now has been effective enough.

“It’s one of the things we want to manage, but it’s tough to manage when you have 18- to 22-year-old men and a lot of them are driving for the first time. I don’t have the exact answer. I wish I did.”

Georgia, Smart deserve scrutiny

There’s no getting around the unflattering spotlight Georgia football has been put under this offseason.

While some might argue these speeding tickets and various traffic offenses are misdemeanors, the scrutiny is eminently fair for two reasons: Smart’s program lost two of its members due to stupidity, carelessness and alcohol impairment, and the Bulldogs just happen to be coming off back-to-back national titles.

Georgia has reaped immeasurable benefits in recruiting and media attention for raising those championship banners, so it must accept the negativity that comes down when the program’s off-the-field warts get exposed.

If this same trend of reckless driving had transpired at Missouri, Boise State, Purdue or Pittsburgh, would it merit the same widespread media scrutiny? Probably not to the same national degree because Georgia is an elite SEC program, but it wouldn’t be ignored by media in those locales either.

When Urban Meyer was coaching a two-time national champion at Florida, how many times during and after his tenure did the Gators have to hear about the 31 arrests of 25 UF players from 2005-10?

Now some of those were minor offenses and charges often dismissed, but there were also disturbing incidents involving the likes of Chris Rainey (felony stalking) and Cam Newton (felony burglary), as well as the travails of the late Aaron Hernandez.

Georgia’s present situation is not at that same level, but it’s enough where Smart better get a handle on it before a tragic circumstance resurfaces.

“Your football program is always at the forefront whether you’re winning or losing,” said Gator Bowl president and former Georgia athletic director Greg McGarity, who hired Smart in Dec. 2015. “More attention is paid to it when you’ve reached Georgia’s status. It’s a pretty tight microscope.”

A lot of that attention at SEC Media Days will be focused on the ‘Dogs trying to become the first team to pull off a three-peat in the college football modern era.

Sure, Georgia may have lost quarterback Stetson Bennett, 10 players to the NFL Draft and a few more to the transfer portal. But it still has a stifling defense and likely QB heir Carson Beck will have the best tight end in college football, Brock Bowers, as a go-to target. Not to mention, the comfort of a cupcake non-conference schedule and no LSU or Alabama until a potential SEC title matchup.

Georgia is an impressive 81-15 (.843) under Smart, which means it must now deal with getting every opponent’s best shot. However, the eighth-year head coach also has the responsibility of finding a way to minimize the distractions that come with negative attention from his team’s embarrassing driving record.

No easy solution

There’s no cookie-cutter formula for any football coach when it comes to meting out discipline, especially for non-felony offenses.

Speeding is a bad thing, but anyone expecting Smart to start suspending players each time one of them gets a ticket has a myopic view.

This is a case-by-case thing as not all infractions are created equal. Carter’s situation would have merited some kind of suspension if he was still at Georgia, though it’s anybody’s guess whether Smart would have imposed one on his best player.

A DUI or going 91 miles-per-hour on a road where the speed limit is 45 mph can’t be treated the same as getting ticketed for doing 70 mph in a 55-mile zone. Every time a football coach is confronted by a player breaking the law, punishment must vary based on circumstances.

How Georgia administers discipline moving forward for speeding or anything else, it’s naturally going to be scrutinized more intensely because of what’s transpired in recent months.

Smart is paid to win games and his program projecting a positive image for the school. It’s incumbent upon him to find a solution to ensure his players stop putting the lives of themselves and others at risk.

Finding the right balance between winning and appropriate consequences for each law-breaking incident, especially non-felonies, is a judgment call.

“What frustrates Kirby is his message [about speeding] isn’t getting across and he’s trying to find a way to do that,” said McGarity. “He’s trying to educate his players, he’s not ignoring it.

“Now those outside the room that have no knowledge of what’s going on in each case, or what the communications were with players, are always ready to pass judgment. People on social media are quick to provide solutions in areas where they have no expertise at all.”

McGarity isn’t attempting to give his former employee and good friend a free pass. Two people dying because of foolish decisions to speed-race in the middle of the night, followed by nearly a dozen Georgia players being cited for speeding rather excessively, makes one wonder how often this is happening when a police cruiser isn’t there to pull them over.

For 11 seasons at three different stops, Smart learned at the foot of Alabama’s Nick Saban. He’s done a superb job of building a program where winning big isn’t likely to stop any time soon.

But along with that, Kirby Smart better figure out a way to slow down his players once they get behind the wheel.

Gfrenette@jacksonville.com: (904) 359-4540; Follow him on Twitter @genefrenette    

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Georgia players' lives in fast lane bad optics for Kirby Smart's program