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Georgia football coach Kirby Smart addressed his team’s recent speeding issues while talking at SEC Media Days on Tuesday. According to him, though, the issue isn’t recent at all.
The Bulldogs have made unfortunate headlines all offseason for their unsafe driving practices. The worst came shortly after the program’s second consecutive college football championship, and it resulted in the death of a player and team staff member.
An alleged street racing accident took the lives of offensive lineman Devin Willock and recruiting staffer Chandler LeCroy this past January. That incident also led to an arrest warrant being issued for first-round pick Jalen Carter.
Despite that horrific result, the traffic violations involving team members have not slowed down. In many cases, Georgia football players have been caught speeding, with Kirby Smart categorizing a number of those violators as “super speeders.”
In fact, 11 players have been cited for moving violations since that deadly accident, with the most recent being freshman Samuel M’Pemba. He was caught driving 88 MPH in a 55 MPH zone.
Prior, linebacker Jamon Dumas-Johnson had been arrested for street racing and reckless driving.
Many claimed that Kirby Smart had lost control of his program following the string of offseason citations. At SEC Media Days, these issues were brought up once again, but the head coach denies that there’s been an uptick in speeding tickets.
“I’m disappointed any time we have traffic incidents,” Smart said. “It’s very evident when you look at it, we’ve had traffic citations and incidents throughout the history of being at the University of Georgia. And we actually don’t have more now than we’ve had in the past.”
Kirby Smart says that Georgia has not had more traffic incidents recently than it has had in the past.
Several players have been ticketed for speeding in excess of 20 mph and speeding played a role in the fatal crash in January.
— Laine Higgins (@lainehiggins17) July 18, 2023
He notes that similar speeding issues have always been prevalent at UGA, as you’re dealing with 18- to 22-year-old kids. He says it happened to him while he was playing for the Bulldogs.
Still, he remains frustrated with seeing his players’ names in the headlines.
“What concerns me most is the safety of our players. When you drive at high speeds, it’s unsafe, and we don’t want that to happen… If someone’s going to have a speeding ticket, it shouldn’t be a super speeder.”
We’ll see if he’s able to resolve the issue as the season approaches.