Look: Nolan Smith takes issue with criticisms leveled at Georgia, Kirby Smart
The Georgia football program has spent a ton of time in the news in 2022 and mostly for reasons they’d love to avoid. Since celebrating a second straight National Championship the Bulldogs have lost two beloved members of the program in a car accident and had three players arrested, one in connection with the car crash that took those two lives. Nolan Smith, however, takes issue with the fact that Kirby Smart or the Georgia culture is being blamed.
“Yall attack my teammates Character now My Head Coach in the words Of Rian Davis “It’s a sick world we live,” Smith said on Twitter.
The details surrounding the deaths of Chandler LeCroy and Devin Willock are well-known at this spoint. Athens-Clarke County Police say that LeCroy, who was driving the Ford Expedition being leased by UGA for recruiting purposes, had a blood alcohol concentration of nearly two and a half times the legal limit. The vehicle was also moving at 104 miles per hour before the crash. She was unauthorized to be driving that vehicle after work hours.
We also found out this week that ACC police have concluded that star defensive tackle Jalen Carter was racing the vehicle at the time of the accident. He was charged with reckless driving and racing. In addition, inside linebacker Jamon Dumas-Johnson was a arrested recently on the same charges stemming from an incident on January 10, the evening following the Bulldogs return from the National Championship game.
Add to it transfer wideout Rara Thomas‘ arrest in January over an altercation with his girlfriend in a UGA dorm room, and it’s a lot to digest. It’s worth mentioning that one of Thomas’ charges have been dropped and he had been on Georgia’s campus less than a month when that went down.
Smart speaks out…
Kirby Smart broke his silence on Friday, speaking with ESPN’s Mark Schlabach and vehemently pushing back against the notion that Georgia has a culture problem.
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“Absolutely not. I would say we’re far from it,” Smart told ESPN. “When you talk to people outside our program that come into it, they talk about what a great culture we do have — and we do an incredible job. Because I’ve got a lot of outside entities that come into our program and pour into these young men.”
Smart went on to say that no policy or protocol at Georgia contributed to the car accident that took the lives of LeCroy and Willock and claimed that in no way was it LeCroy’s responsibility or task to be driving players around that night.
Smith emotional when talking about Willock…
Smith turned in an incredible performance at the NFL Scouting Combine on Thursday, a day after having trouble talking about his deceased teammate during media interviews. Smith was asked about Willock and stated his desire to “Do it for Dev.”
“That’s my guy,” Smith told reporters at his press availability. “That’s one person that never did anything wrong. I get sensitive talking about it just because I love him. He never did anything wrong in his three years. He was supposed to graduate. His brother passed like that. I’m sorry to his mama. No one should live like that.”
