Georgia disappointed in decisions, confident in culture after off-field troubles

DALLAS — It’s been an eventful week for Georgia Football, but unfortunately, the Bulldogs’ action has come off the field.

Senior linebacker Smael Mondon and redshirt freshman offensive linemen Bo Hughley were arrested last week in Athens for separate reckless driving incidents. Other Georgia players proved to be involved, either in the most recent occurrences or previous ones that have come to light through investigative reporting, leaving head coach Kirby Smart with questions to answer for the actions of program members. He did so Tuesday at SEC Media Days.

“I always talk about process and outcomes. I talk about that in wins and losses, that we try not to base things on the outcomes in wins and losses. In this situation, the outcomes are very disappointing. Our process and the things we’ve put in place, I feel very strongly about,” Smart said. “We do as much or more education than anybody in the country. We have discipline in the form of suspensions and we will continue to do so. We’ll have suspensions coming out of some of these. We had them last year with the Marcus Rosemy situation. We’ve also had to let guys go based on them.”

Smart did not specify who would be suspended for Georgia or when the missed time would occur. He didn’t feel it was his job to publicly shame players for their decisions. Rather, he wants their mistakes to be learning opportunities.

“I don’t necessarily think it’s right to go down to the town square and publicly shame kids when that happens. They go through a lot, and there’s a lot of remorse from these young men who made mistakes,” Smart said. “Our job is to educate and continue to grow these young men.”

“Everybody wants to know what game and are they suspended. That’s probably not the most important thing in terms of the discipline and culture they’ve got to experience. As far as I know, there’s not one team that has ever suspended a player for a traffic violation. That’s what Marcus Rosemy got suspended for. I don’t know that anybody has kicked anybody off the team for that, and we have that,” he continued. “We’re going to continue to be proactive. It’s repeated behaviors that will get you dismissed. Repeated poor behaviors and poor decisions. In some cases we have repeated behaviors. In some cases, we have guys that make mistakes. We’re gonna punish them.”

Smart referenced a recent article written saying Georgia players should be fined for their mistakes. If the players want to be treated like professionals, they should be punished that way as well. In doing so, Smart made it known that Georgia’s Classic City Collective has indeed been fining players for off-field infractions of their NIL agreement. It comes outside of his jurisdiction, but the players certainly are paying the price.

Punishing players isn’t the only effort Georgia has gone to to try and get the message across about acting the right way off the field. Educational efforts have been made as well with different driving courses being taught throughout the year and hundreds of mentions of the issue in team meetings. Needless to say, it’s not being ignored by Kirby Smart, his coaching staff and those in the program. The players though, for reasons Smart cannot comprehend, simply don’t seem to be receiving the message.

“I don’t know. That’s a great question. I’d love every solution possible. We actually write down now every time we talk about it and every time we address it. We have someone in every meeting that hears that. Before I came, there was 162 times that is has been mentioned,” Smart said about Georgia’s handling of driving issues and the players apparent failure to comprehend. “People will say this will fall on deaf ears, you’ve got to have discipline, you have to discipline someone. We have. We will continue to do so. If the actions require that, we’ll do what’s necessary to do that. I do think the effective way in curtailng some things is when you go to their wallet and fine them. Because these fines have been substantial. It’ll make you think twice about the mistakes you made.”

Not all is bad with the Bulldogs though, and Smart believes Georgia’s ways do indeed work. He’ll stick by his players and help them through challenging times in their life. He’s seen it pay off both on the field and off the field in several cases, mentioning two special ones specifically on Tuesday.

“Probably the proudest moments I’ve had in the last year have been when I see, at workouts the other day Malik Herring’s out there running around with his 2-year-old son. He’s a father now, and he thanks Tray Scott and myself for standing by him during some issues he had while he was with us,” Smart said.. “Jonathan Ledbetter gets awarded the NFL Man of the Year for his team. I think about the trials and tribulations he went through, and we stood by him and really pushed him to become a better person and he has. There’s so many success stories out there outside of the few guys who aren’t doing things the right way.”

Georgia opens fall camp in Athens in just over two weeks. The Bulldogs begin the season on August 31st against ACC favorite Clemson at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.