Kirby Smart's Georgia Bulldogs remain a menace – on and off the field | Toppmeyer

NASHVILLE – We’re knee-deep in college football fairy tale season, a preseason period so dull we cook up narratives to pass these dog days until the games arrive.

Last summer’s tall-tale circuit featured ESPN’s Desmond Howard dialing up the whopper that the College Football Playoff field would feature Texas A&M, Pittsburgh, Baylor and Michigan. He might as well have predicted toilets would fly.

Here’s a doozy you may have heard this summer: Georgia’s tumultuous offseason, marked by a barrage of high-speed driving incidents, is evidence of a rotting culture.

Nonsense.

Here’s what I think: Kirby Smart’s Bulldogs remain a menace on – and off – the field, and scribes at SEC media days this week will predict Georgia to win the SEC, because most of us know that talent prevails once the offseason bluster ends.

This is not to trivialize the seriousness of Georgia’s offseason spent racing the streets and becoming a magnet for police. But, two things can be true: Georgia's persistent reckless driving calls for Smart’s attention, but that doesn’t change that, on the field, few teams parallel Georgia’s talent.

For the safety of his players and everyone they come into contact with, Smart must attempt to curtail or otherwise discipline the problems that have kept Georgia in the headlines for all the wrong reasons since they won their second straight national championship in January.

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Smart at least struck an appropriate tone Tuesday.

“When you drive at high speeds, it’s unsafe,” he said. “We don’t want that to happen. We’re going to do all we can to take that out and make sure that’s eradicated.”

Georgia’s Sedrick Van Pran spelled it out unequivocally.

“This cannot continue to happen,” the veteran offensive lineman said.

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Georgia knows the stakes of high-speed racing, and it’s not wins and losses. It’s much more significant than that.

In January, Georgia recruiting staff member Chandler LeCroy and Bulldogs offensive lineman Devin Willock were killed in a high-speed car crash. Two passengers survived. A police investigation found that LeCroy was intoxicated while racing in Athens, reaching speeds of 104 mph before crashing in a 40 mph zone. Willock’s father has filed a lawsuit against the University of Georgia Athletic Association. Another player, Jalen Carter, was later sentenced to probation for reckless driving and racing in connection with that incident.

So, no, I’m not trivializing the seriousness of Georgia’s offseason gone wrong.

“A tragedy can either divide us or unite us,” Smart said. “I’m proud of our players. It has definitely brought them closer together and united our team and our family.”

Maybe, but the driving incidents kept coming.

Athens Clarke-County police stopped Georgia wide receiver Marcus Rosemy-Jacksaint in May for driving 90 in a 45 mph. The responding officer expressed disbelief upon learning Rosemy-Jacksaint was a football player.

“It’s crazy how much y’all are speeding around here,” the officer said, according to body camera footage.

It’s crazy, it’s dangerous, and it’s stupid, and Smart’s efforts, to this point, have proven futile to stop it.

I'm just unconvinced this wholly disastrous offseason will affect Georgia’s on-field performance, and it was notable Tuesday that Smart highlighted football-related complacency as the threat to his program, rather than any culture issue.

In an attempt to romanticize this sport, we sometimes assign phony narratives to national champions, making it seem as if a supernatural brotherhood or motivational ploys are the key to unlocking national championships.

In truth, it’s much simpler than that. This isn't 4-dimensional chess. The teams with the best players win. The stars that must align to win a national championship are not located in the cosmos, but rather the four stars and the five stars on the field. Georgia is loaded with stars, plus a staff that knows how to develop talent.

Georgia remains the team to fear, especially after the summer of fairy tales ends and the football begins.

Blake Toppmeyer is the USA TODAY Network's SEC Columnist. Email him at BToppmeyer@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter @btoppmeyer.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY NETWORK: Kirby Smart's Georgia Bulldogs remain a menace – on and off the field