Kirby Smart addresses expectations for educating players in program

Following an offseason tragedy that involved the death of Georgia football player Devin Willock and team staff member Chandler LeCroy, Georgia has gone through a long and arduous process of revamping how it is educating players around some of the dangers players can face.

Racing has increased in popularity in certain areas and appears to be a factor in the two deaths, with Georgia star Jalen Carter also caught up in the mess.

Georgia coach Kirby Smart is confident his program’s culture is sound, though this was a bit of a blind spot that needed to be addressed.

“To be honest with you I’ve never been a part of a program where that was something you had to repeatedly address,” Smart said.

But Georgia has done its best to help players and staffers alike deal with the tragedy, which has taken a heavy toll on the program.

“It’s been a tough go with the death of Chandler and Devin,” Smart said. “As you guys know it’s a tragic accident, and our players have been through a lot when you talk about the mental help some of our guys have needed since the accident, it’s been a really tough go of it for them.

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

Georgia constantly educating players on safety

In addition to normal discussions regarding drugs and alcohol, Georgia has begun to incorporate racing into its educational program. There have been sessions set to help players understand the dangers and the risks.

“As I said in the past, we had a session this summer where we brought in Athens-Clark County police and UGA police and addressed a lot of these issues with our team, actually in a team meeting setting,” Smart said. “Played some video of some things that were going on in Atlanta with drag racing and things. Things that just concern you. We do that with drugs and alcohol. We do that with domestic violence. We try to have education programs.

“But education’s 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. We try to educate and make sure our players understand those risks.”

Smart was blunt that his program had suffered a letdown with the tragic deaths that could have been prevented. He remains confident the program can be a powerful force for educating players in the goal of making better decisions, though.

“Certainly we haven’t met some of those requirements, and we want our student-athletes to meet those,” Smart said. “We take those things very seriously. The standards that have been created here for a long time, that doesn’t change. And we want our players to live up to those and the mistakes they make, we treat them like we do our kids. We discipline them, we try to prevent them, we try to educate them, we try to do all we can to help our student-athletes in a positive way.”