Good news:Georgia Bulldog finally sign him..
The Georgia football program and Kirby Smart should pay attention to warning signs before it’s too late.
It is simple to determine when precisely you have lost Kirby Smart’s interest. At a certain moment, his eyes just shoot off into the distance, as if the world has vanished and his brain is telling his body to go somewhere else. Instead of doing whatever it is he’s supposed to do, the brain is telling his body to think about something that will help him win a football game.
This attribute is presumably one of the numerous explanations for how Smart has elevated Georgia to the top of college football, winning the previous two national titles and likely to win more in the years to come.
However, recent reporting by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution regarding the handling of disciplinary matters by Smart and the Georgia program has exposed a potential weakness that we have observed to fester inside several potential dynasties that ultimately fell.
It would be foolish for Smart to attempt to dismiss the concerns brought up in Wednesday’s piece with a smug attitude because they are significant enough on their own.
During Smart’s seven seasons as head coach, the Journal-Constitution discovered that eleven players had been kept in the program after women had reported abuse claims against them to the university or local police. New information regarding specific incidents was included in the report. One incident from 2022 involved a recruit who broke curfew and got drunk when he was 16 years old. As a result, he ended up under investigation for sexual assault during a visit. Jamaal Jarrett, the defensive tackle, was not charged and will play as a freshman for Georgia this autumn.
The newspaper also discovered that in 2021, Bryant Gantt, a Georgia staffer, was present in the room when police questioned George Pickens, a former Bulldogs receiver, regarding a woman’s report of a sexual assault against linebacker Adam Anderson. The woman claimed to have passed out from alcohol intoxication and to have woken up to Anderson penetrating her without permission.
Friends of the accuser had informed the police that Pickens had implicated Anderson, according to the Journal-Constitution. But Pickens refused to answer questions, according to court documents, even though his parents and the staff member were present.
Gantt was present to act as a character witness alongside eight Georgia football players when Anderson requested to be released on bond. Anderson, who is dealing with a second rape at the moment
Even though the school told the newspaper that athletes are subject to the same disciplinary procedures as regular students and that it fully cooperates with law enforcement, the Equal Opportunity Office, and the Office of Student Conduct in the event that an athlete is accused of sexual misconduct, the reporting provides a detailed account of how a major league football program uses its resources and influence when a player is involved in legal issues.
That’s nothing new in collegiate athletics. However, the investigation into Georgia and individuals such as Gantt, who serves as the team’s go-to guy for player misbehavior off the field, started just hours following the January national championship parade.In what looked to be the aftermath of street racing, Georgia player Devin Willock and staff member Chandler LeCroy perished in an automobile accident. Before being selected as the ninth pick in the NFL Draft, Jalen Carter, the driver of the other vehicle involved in the collision, entered a plea of not guilty to misdemeanor charges of reckless driving and racing.
Naturally, Gantt was present that evening, providing special access to the crime scene and the players during their interrogation by law enforcement. The Journal-Constitution has reported that Gantt communicated with court representatives on eighty-two different player-related cases between 2016 and 2023, and documents indicate a cordial rapport with local law enforcement.Gantt joined the football program in 2011 while Mark Richt was still the head coach. According to his official biography page on Georgia’s website, Gantt had previously worked as a legal assistant at an Athens law firm.
While Smart has maintained that there is no culture problem in his program, the truth is that Georgia has put in place a whole infrastructure to help reduce player-related legal issues and keep them hidden from the public. It is rare for the so-called internal discipline to result in game suspensions or team dismissals.
That could help to explain, for example, why speeding and other traffic infractions have become far too common among Georgia players under Smart, as reported by the Journal-Constitution, with at least 60 incidents of exceeding the speed limit by more than 20 mph and at least seven citations for exceeding 40 mph.
Prior to January, those incidents were unknown to anyone. However, the tragedy gave people a reason to start looking into Smart’s program’s activities beyond the NFL Draft selection assembly line and championships.
It’s been, to put it mildly, a bad look.
Naturally, a lot of Georgia supporters will come to Smart’s aid given that the team is currently enjoying its greatest run in school history. When they keep winning, fans usually don’t want to know how the sausage is made.
However, past experiences indicate that hiding or downplaying these problems can have detrimental effects, particularly when a coach’s primary concern is winning above all else.
A program’s off-field problems will eventually affect its on-field performance. It always occurs.
Ask Florida supporters how quickly national titles in 2006 and 2008 brought Urban Meyer’s kingdom crashing down as a litany of off-field incidents mounted. Find out from Florida State supporters how their once-vibrant culture withered away after Jimbo Fisher spent two years covering Jameis Winston’s problems. Given the scandals that were brewing under Les Miles’s radar in his later years, the fall of LSU under his leadership makes a lot more sense.
We have no end in sight. This is collegiate football’s past. Even powerful Georgia is susceptible to a discipline breakdown; nobody is invincible in the long run. If issues are not resolved up front, they will eventually spread into a hideous mess of dysfunction.
Nobody is calling for Smart’s termination or accusing him of any wrongdoing as of yet. That would be completely irrational. However, there is no denying that the perception of Georgia as a flawless program fresh off consecutive national titles has been shattered. All the warning signs are flashing red, and the door to what really happens under Smart’s watch has been cracked open.
It would be prudent of him not to ignore them, as he frequently does with things that don’t benefit him.
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