Georgia Bulldogs head coach Kirby Smart spoke with the media ahead of his team’s first spring practice of the 2024 season.The Georgia Bulldogs are set to begin spring practice this week as coaches and players will have their first on-field looks at what the team could look like come the 2024 season. Bulldogs head coach Kirby Smart addressed the media ahead of the team’s first practice.
Smart and the rest of the Bulldogs will continue their spring practice camp for the next few weeks. Spring camp will conclude on Saturday, April 13th when the Bulldogs hold their annual “G-Day” game in Sanford Stadium.
Georgia football coach Kirby Smart spent much of last spring and into the preseason facing questions about high-speed driving incidents involving Bulldog players, but it had been a quiet 2024 offseason until early Sunday.
Running back Travis Etienne, the most-high profile transfer addition, was charged with DUI, reckless driving and two other misdemeanors and had to bond out of jail. Police said Etienne drove at least 30 miles over the speed limit on a 50 MPH road and he said he drank three beers earlier, according to the incident report.
“As we also know, sometimes kids don’t make the best decisions,” Smart said Tuesday. “The older you get sometimes the tougher the consequences are for your mistakes. He’s not going to let this mistake define him. He’s embarrassed, he’s upset. He know he made a mistake. It’s a teaching moment and we hope he gets better from it.”
Georgia football players were arrested or cited for speeding or reckless driving at least 14 times last year after the Jan. 15, 2023 fatal crash that killed offensive lineman Devin Willock and recruiting staffer Chandley LeCroy. Excessive speed and alcohol played a role in the crash, police said.
In addition, Georgia player coordinator Jarvis Jones, a former All-American linebacker, was suspended from the football program for a week last September after he was arrested going 86 miles per hour in a 40 mile per hour zone in a late night incident.
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Jones in January had a reckless driving charge from that incident dismissed but plead guilty to speeding, completed a defensive driving class and paid a $340 fine in Athens Municipal Court.
Wide receiver DeNylon Morrisette is still facing an April court hearing in Oconee County for a May 2023 incident when he hit another vehicle from behind and was charged with DUI drugs and driving too fast for conditions.
He transferred after last season to play at Purdue. Georgia held Morrisette out of practices last preseason until school started.
When he was pulled over for going 81 in a 45 in February, 2023, police told him: “Y’all got to slow down. We’ve been getting all of y’all a lot.
Etienne, who played the last two seasons at Florida, could face a one game suspension under Georgia athletic policy for the DUI.
“In addition to our university discipline process, we’ve got all of the stuff we deal with inside house,” Smart said. “He’ll be sus- (then Smart stopped himself)…with those same details he’ll be under the rules we have in-house as well as the university discipline. Disappointed in his decision-making, but he is a good kid.”
Defensive back Javon Bullard was suspended for a game in 2022 after a DUI incident.
Wide receiver Marcus Rosemy-Jacksaint served a one-game suspension last season after his arrest for reckless driving and multiple speeding incidents.
“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 in March 2023. “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.”
He said then that 18 to 22 year olds make mistakes. Etienne is 19.
Smart said Tuesday he thinks Georgia educates players on off-field issues better than anyone in the country.
Offensive tackle Earnest Greene said local police, athletic director Josh Brooks and Smart have addressed the team in the past on what to do and not do when it comes to driving and alcohol.
“It’s on us,” Greene said.
Smart said more players today have vehicles than ever before that he’s had. NIL deals could be behind that.
Etienne was driving a 2024 RS7 Audi.
“I can’t really say to the style of vehicles, you could probably make an easy assumption with more money they have an opportunity to have nicer cars,” he said. “That’s any excuse for the speed. It just means we have more opportunities to have traffic citations which we don’t want.”
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