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The Georgia Bulldogs are the best college football team in the land.
That much is indisputable, as the Bulldogs have lifted the last two College Football Playoff trophies.
But it also appears that their success has come at a cost.
Georgia offensive lineman Devin Willock and football staffer Chandler LeCroy were killed in a wreck in January while racing a car driven by former Bulldogs defensive tackle Jalen Carter.
As it turns out, the incident was just one of a wide-ranging series of brushes with the law for Georgia players in recent years, many of them vehicle-related.
In fact, 11 players have been cited for moving violations since the Jan. 15 crash.
Freshman Samuel M’Pemba was the latest player to be cited after driving 88 miles per hour in a 55 mph zone. About an hour later, teammate Marcus Rosemy-Jacksaint pleaded guilty to driving 90 mph in a 45 mph zone.
So, how is coach Kirby Smart handling things? Well, it appears he isn’t.
“I’ll be the first to admit we haven’t solved that issue or problem,” Smart told reporters during a 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.”
In fact, Smart seemed to pass the buck altogether.
“It’s one of the things that we want to manage, but it is a tough situation to manage when you have 18- to 22-year-old men [and] a lot of them are driving for the first time,” Smart said. “You know, every fall we have 25 new guys. We’ve averaged five guys that come here at 18 years old with no driver’s license, and we continue to work on that. I don’t have the exact answer. I wish I did, but we continue to work at it.
“I’m one of those that believes abuse brings control, and we’ll continue to educate our players the best we can and try to do a better job with it.”
Not exactly inspiring words from one of the top coaches in the nations. Hopefully, it won’t take another tragedy for Smart to figure things out.