Kirby Smart addresses UGA football players racing & reckless driving, program policies

Georgia football coach Kirby Smart opened Tuesday’s spring football press conference by addressing the rocky couple of months that followed the program’s second straight national championship game before any questions came.

It included two player arrests for reckless driving and racing, one connected to the fatal crash that killed two from the program.

“I feel like our players are starting to be able to acknowledge and they understand when you make mistakes, decisions that are costly can cost you your life,” Smart said. “That’s not to be taken lightly. I think our guys understand that and we continue to educate them and we’ll continue to do all we can as a university to make sure they behave and do that in a proper way.”

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About the first half of the press conference of some 22 minutes was related to the headlines that came from the off-field incidents because it was the first time Smart was available to reporters since Jan. 10, the day after the national championship game, other than an interview he did March 3 with ESPN.

Georgia offensive lineman Devin Willock and recruiting staffer Chandler LeCroy were killed in an early morning crash on Barnett Shoals Road in Athens on Jan. 15 after a day in which a parade and stadium celebration were held for the national championship.

Athens-Clarke County police said LeCroy and star defensive tackle Jalen Carter were street racing after leaving downtown Athens around 2:30 a.m. She was driving a Ford Expedition rented by UGA athletics. Willock was a passenger in that vehicle as were offensive tackle Warren McClendon and recruiting staffer Tory Bowles who sustained injuries in the crash.

Police said LeCroy’s blood alcohol level was more than twice the legal limit and she was racing Carter going 104 miles per hour.

Carter, who police say was driving a 2021 Jeep Trackhawk, turned himself in on March 1 after warrants were issued for his arrest for street racing and reckless driving, both misdemeanors.

The case has been handed over to the Solicitor General's Office, a police spokesperson said on Tuesday.

Five days before the crash, Georgia starting inside linebacker Jamon Dumas-Johnson allegedly was racing side-by-side with another driver also in a Dodge Charger near campus. Dumas-Johnson was booked on Feb. 22 for racing on highway/streets and reckless driving. Police tried to make a traffic stop but could not catch up to Dumas-Johnson and the other driver after accelerating up to 75 miles per hour on College Station Road. Police said they attempted to elude police.

Offensive tackle Broderick Jones, who finished his Georgia career last season, was asked about the recent racing incidents.

“Just don’t do it,” he told the Athens Banner-Herald at the NFL combine. “That’s all I can tell you. You’ve got a lot riding. I talked to Pop (Dumas-Johnson) after his little incident and I got on him. I ain’t going to cuss, but I got on him. I told him. ‘You got a lot riding, you’re a starter now, you can’t keep doing all these things you were doing when you were younger like a freshman. You’re not a freshman anymore.’ You’ve got to have that mindset and that mentality to just control yourself sometimes, but that was really it. Just don’t do it. That’s my message.”

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UGA has said that LeCroy violated policy by driving the rented vehicle on the morning of the crash after her duties were done for the day. Smart said his program’s policies are “constantly under review,” to find ways to do things better.

“No policy or lack thereof policy caused this accident,” Smart said. “We found no reason to change anything we have. Our workers in our (recruiting) department have the ability to drive a vehicle or not drive a vehicle. Those student-workers and the two young ladies have permission to drive the vehicles. They were driving them when they should not have been driving them and that policy was broken. It’s understood that you can not take a vehicle when you’re not doing your duties. They were not participating in their duties that night.”

Carter was also pulled over by Athens-Clarke County police in September for going 89 mph in a 45 mph zone and received three citations including speeding.

The officer who pulled him over said he pulled over two other UGA football players that same day.

“You all need to slow down, dude,” the officer told Carter according to body camera footage. “Your break is that you’re not going to jail because it will make all kind of news.”

Three other Georgia players were arrested since January 2022 on charges ranging from DUI to reckless driving to speeding in a construction zone.

“Everybody race, not race. Speed,” former Georgia running back Kenny McIntosh said. “Everybody speeds. Then again, you’ve got to be smart about it. Definitely don’t want to jeopardize anybody’s life or anybody’s career or anything like that. I would say definitely every human being has sped before. It’s definitely not smart. I wouldn’t say I recommend doing it or anything, especially after a long night.”

Smart was asked if he feels he’s had proper control or supervision over the program.

“Absolutely, we’ve got complete control of our program and our kids,” he said. “Do kids make mistakes? Yes. Young student-athletes make mistakes. They do. It happens all across the country, it happens here. There’s no lack of control for our program. I think our kids will tell you across the board, we have an incredible culture here.”

He said 18-to-22 year olds make mistakes.

“Our job as coaches is to prevent that from happening,” Smart said. “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.”

A projected top 5 NFL prospect, Carter left the NFL combine in Indianapolis to face the charges and then returned the next day. He’s expected to take part in Georgia’s Pro Day for NFL teams on Wednesday.

There had been no arrests for racing on highways or streets in 2023 by Athens-Clarke County police through March 8. Warrants were issued for Carter through the Athens-Clarke County Sherriff’s Office.

There were 4 racing arrests in 2022, 1 in 2021, 4 in 2020 and 14 in 2019, according to Athens-Clarke County police data.

Dumas-Johnson’s racing arrest is the only one by UGA Police listed going back at least seven years, according to online logs.

“He still has a day in court for those charges that are still charges,” Smart said. “Will there be discipline? …Absolutely, there will be discipline. Do I have to define what that discipline is right now? No, I don’t have to define what that discipline is, but I can assure you the education piece is there and the discipline piece is there.”

UGA police, according to an incident report obtained by the Athens Banner-Herald, issued barring notices for 180 days to five Georgia football players including Carter last year on April 23 for “laying drags,” at the Georgia athletics’ softball/soccer complex for driving in a circular/zig zag course with what police said were three Dodge Chargers and a Corvette.

Police said they heard tires squealing at 2:55 a.m. that day, about one week after they heard similar noise and noticed fresh skid marks at the softball/soccer complex. Police blocked the four vehicles on April 23 from exiting but after speaking to them was unable to determine who was “laying drag,” but suspected all four vehicles were based on smell of burning rubber and marks of drag throughout the parking lot, according to a police incident report.

SEC commissioner Greg Sankey, who was at the Sanford Stadium event the day before the fatal crash, was asked Friday at the SEC basketball tournament in Nashville about the Georgia crash and the murder of a 23-year old mother on that same day that resulted in the indictment of ex-Alabama player Darius Miles and another man on capital murder charges.

Star Alabama player Brandon Miller brought a gun to the scene of the shooting but has not faced charges.

Sankey was asked if schools can put more resources in place to avoid similar tragic incidents.

"Training and education are subject to the individual decision maker," Sankey said. "Those are the realities of life."

Sankey said when he speaks to SEC athletes on campus, he shares a message about making good decisions.

“There's not a lot of good in life that happens between midnight and 5 a.m. unless you're working in a hospital as a doctor or nurse because you're helping people,” he said. “You have to make decisions in advance about how you're going to live. Oftentimes decisions in certain areas are the best decisions you'll make in life, where I'm going to be, how I'm going to function, who I'm going to be around.”

Smart said he brought in UGA and Athens-Clarke police last summer to educate players about the risks of drag racing.

“We do that with drugs and alcohol, we do that with domestic violence,” he said. “We try to have education programs. Education is not enough. You have to do a great job of making sure your players understand the risks and dangers that are out there with vehicles, especially nowadays that go really fast. You’ve got to be extremely careful.”

The recent racing incidents at Georgia come at a time in college athletics when players can now benefit from name, image and likeness deals.

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Carter had an arrangement with Ohio-based Sarchione Auto Gallery and two other unnamed Georgia athletes had deals with Jimmy Granger Ford and Blue Grass Automotive, according to documents obtained by the Athens Banner-Herald.

Hours before the team’s first practice since last season, wide receiver Ladd McConkey defended the culture of the program on Tuesday.

“Our coaches have done a good job of being proactive instead of reactive,” he said. “ If you think about it, any 18-to-21-year old kid, if you don’t make a mistake, it’s kind of silly to think that’s not going to happen. The main thing is if something happens, you learn from it. If you don’t, then that’s when it gets bad.”

This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Georgia football coach Kirby Smart on racing arrests and fatal crash