Georgia football staffer Jarvis Jones is 15th from program to face speeding or reckless driving charge since fatal crash in January
University of Georgia football coaching staff member Jarvis Jones was arrested on reckless driving and speeding charges late Friday, the Atlanta-Journal Constitution reports.
Jones, the team's player connection coordinator, is the 15th member of the program to face a reckless driving or speeding charge since the crash that killed offensive lineman Devin Willock and recruiting staffer Chandler LeCroy on Jan. 15, according to the Constitution.
Police say that LeCroy and defensive lineman Jalen Carter were racing separate vehicles with speeds exceeding 100 mph in the moments before the early-morning crash that took place after Georgia's celebration of its national championship. Willock was a passenger in the car that LeCroy was driving.
The Journal-Constitution reports that Jones' charge comes with a designation of speeding/maximum limits, indicating that he's accused of driving more than 20 miles per hour over the speed limit. He was booked at the Athens-Clarke County Jail at 11:26 p.m. Friday night and released on $2,400 bond an hour later. No other details of his arrest were released.
Jones, 33, played linebacker for two seasons at Georgia from 2011-12 before a four-season NFL career with the Pittsburgh Steelers. He's been back with the Georgia program since his NFL retirement in 2016. He's the only member of the coaching staff among the 15 who have faced driving-related charges or citations since January. Defensive lineman Tyrion Ingram-Dawkins, linebacker Jamon Dumas-Johnson and wide receiver De’Nylon Morrissette were among the others to face arrests for driving offenses.
Head coach Kirby Smart denied in March that the program had a culture problem related to reckless driving.
"Absolutely not. I would say we're far from it," Smart told ESPN on March 3. "When you talk to people outside our program that come into it, they talk about what a great culture we do have — and we do an incredible job.
He has since acknowledged that the program does have a problem and that it has taken measures to address it.
“I’ll be the first to admit we haven’t solved that issue or problem,” Smart said during a July news conference. “I don’t honestly know that anybody has. But certainly for us, it’s important to acknowledge it first. We’ve had a lot of intervention in terms of talking and visiting, and discipline measures have been implemented in terms of education. We’ll continue to do that.”
As of early Monday afternoon, neither Jones nor the program had publicly addressed his arrest. Jones was on the sideline for Georgia's season-opening win over Tennessee-Martin on Saturday.
