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Kirby Smart has more than held his own since he was hired to replace Mark Richt as the head coach of Georgia’s football team back in 2015.
While he got off to a somewhat underwhelming start after posting an 8-5 record in his inaugural season, Smart helped the Bulldogs secure an SEC title in his second season and led them all the way to the national championship game before they lost to Alabama in heartbreaking fashion in overtime.
The Crimson Tide continued to serve as the team’s Achilles’ heel in the years that followed, but Georgia was finally able to beat them in the title game in 2021 before successfully defending their championship after putting a 65-7 beatdown on TCU earlier this year.
Unfortunately, the program has been marred by a number of off-the-field incidents since pulling off the repeat.
In January, offensive tackle Devin Willock and Georgia recruiting staffer Chandler LeCroy were killed in a car crash that occurred near Athens a little over a week after the Bulldogs raised the trophy.
LeCroy was reportedly traveling more than 40 MPH over the speed limit at the time of the accident, which led to police issuing an arrest warrant for defensive tackle Jalen Carter for participating in the street race officials say was the true cause of the tragedy.
High speeds were also allegedly the reason linebacker Jamon Dumas-Johnson was arrested for reckless driving the day after Georgia won the national championship.
That string of worrying incidents has understandably left plenty of people wondering if Kirby Smart has lost control of his players, and according to The Associated Press, the head coach had this to say when asked about those accusations before Georgia kicked off its first spring practice:
“There’s no lack of control for our program.
Our guys do make mistakes. That historically is probably going to happen when you have 18 to 22-year-olds.
Our job as coaches is to prevent that from happening and that starts with me and you do it with how you educate your players and how you discipline your players and we’ll continue to do that at a high standard.”
Based on a report that surfaced on Wednesday, Smart may also find himself dealing with another headache in the coming weeks due to the recruiting violations that have apparently been brought to the NCAA’s attention.