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Georgia football’s needs to get its reckless driving problem under control.
The University of Georgia football program has a driving problem.
Two more Georgia football players were arrested for separate reckless driving incidents this week, according to Athens-Clarke County Police, including starting inside linebacker Smael Mondon.
Mondon was arrested for reckless driving that was tied to racing, while offensive lineman Bo Hughley was arrested for reckless driving tied to a single car accident. This is the fourth Bulldog player arrested in the offseason, and all of them have to do with wrongfully operating motor vehicles. Transfer RB Trevor Etienne was arrested for a DUI and reckless driving in March, then mere months later WR Sacovie White was arrested for reckless driving.
At this point, it’s becoming a serious issue within the Georgia football program when it comes to reckless driving. This pattern is growing so long that it goes beyond mistakes by individual players. Whatever head coach Kirby Smart is or isn’t doing, it’s definitely not working. Punishments have to be stronger, resources to get these players away from reckless driving and racing have to be made available. To this point, this feels like a feature of the Georgia football program, and not a bug.
This is the same program that lost two members of their own football program two years ago in a reckless driving incident that involved future top draft pick Jalen Carter. Even in the aftermath of losing a member of the Georgia football family to this same problem, the reckless driving rears its’ ugly head again, and that feels like an issue that lands on Smart more than anyone else. Smart either doesn’t care enough to fix the problem, or the Georgia athletics program doesn’t have the resources to help their own players. I mean, it’s as simple as getting Ubers for every player going to and from somewhere. I’m stunned more teams don’t have these in place already, let alone a team like Georgia who can’t seem to keep their players out of these situations.
Regardless of what Smart or the Georgia program will tell you, this problem isn’t getting better, and it shows no sign of stopping.
