Kirby Smart Addresses Georgia's Off-Field Driving Incidents At SEC Media Days

The Georgia Bulldogs football program has been the elite of the college football world for the last several years. They've won two of the last three national championships and will likely be ranked in the top three in the preseason poll this season.

For everything that has gone right for Kirby Smart's football team on the field, one issue has become a massive problem over the last two years: high-speed, vehicle-related incidents.

Dating back to Jan. 13, 2023, when recruiting analyst Chandler LeCroy and sophomore offensive lineman Devin Willock were killed in a high-speed, alcohol-related car crash, the Bulldogs have now had 22 similar incidents, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution .

Unfortunately, there seems to be no end in sight for these high-speed, vehicle-related incidents either.

On July 9, Bo Hughley, a redshirt freshman offensive lineman, was arrested and charged with reckless driving. Then a day later, senior linebacker Smael Mondon was arrested on charges of racing and reckless driving, and freshman defensive back Demello Jones was cited for allegedly racing against Mondon.

With SEC Media Days this week, it was all but certain that Smart was going to have to address this issue, much like he did at last year's event.

"Disappointed, anytime a situation happens like that," Smart said, according to Outkick's Trey Wallace. "I’m very pleased with the process we’ve put in. I don’t know of any coach that has suspended a player off a driving incident; we have."

The only player so far to be dismissed from the program recently has been senior defensive back David Daniel-Sisavanh, who "violated team rules."

“The incidents we’ve had off the field are not something that we condone,” Smart said, via Marc Weiszer at the Athens Banner-Herald . “Very unfortunate, disappointing I guess is the best word. I always talk about process and outcomes. I talk about that in wins and losses, that we try not to base things on the outcomes in wins and losses. In this situation, the outcomes are very disappointing. Our process and the things we’ve put in place, I feel very strongly about. We do as much or more education than anybody in the country. We have discipline in the form of suspensions and we will continue to do so. We’ll have suspensions coming out of some of these.”

Smart also said that besides suspensions, hitting the players pockets is another way they're hoping to put a stop to on-going incidents.

"Our Classic City Collective for over a year has been substantially fining guys for those things," Smart said. "That’s not something that’s new. That’s something that’s been ongoing outside of my jurisdiction that they decided to implement and have done to a considerable amount."

Smart didn't go into any further detail on just how this works between a player and their contract with a collective.

Georgia opens their 2024 season against Clemson on Saturday, Aug. 31.