Latest Georgia arrest should put microscope on program

Georgia wide receiver Colbie Young was arrested Tuesday morning on misdemeanor charges of battery and assault on an unborn child, according to a report from The Athletic and other sources. 

Young, a transfer from Miami, became the latest Georgia football player to be arrested in what has become a troubling trend under head coach Kirby Smart.

Smart is great college football coach. With former Alabama head coach Nick Saban retired, he is on the short list of top-five college football coaches. His Bulldogs (4-1), ranked fifth in the Associated Press poll, have won two national championships and played in a New Year’s Six bowl in all but one season in his eight-plus-years tenure.

But there’s a well-documented dark side to the Georgia football program. It’s difficult to nail down how many players have been arrested under Smart’s watch, but The Athletic reported 10 players and one staff member have been arrested just for driving-related incidents since January 2023. Other outlets have reported the number of traffic violation arrests to be in the 20s.

In the most notable such incident involving a Georgia player, defensive tackle Jalen Carter was arrested in March 2023 on charges that stemmed from an investigation into a fatal car crash on Jan. 15, 2023. Athens (Ga.) police said its probe found that Carter, now with the Philadelphia Eagles, and Georgia recruiting analyst Chandler LeCroy were operating vehicles in a manner consistent with racing. LeCroy and Georgia offensive lineman Devin Willock died in the wreck. 

Per ESPN.com, Carter pleaded no contest in March 2023 to misdemeanor charges of reckless driving and racing. He was sentenced to 12 months’ probation, fined $1,000, required to do 80 hours’ community service and attend a state-approved defensive driving course.

Not all the issues with players in the program have been driving violations of varying severity. Wide receiver Rara Thomas was arrested over the summer on charges of cruelty to children-family violence and battery-family violence. He was dismissed from the team.

Whatever the exact number of arrests is in his program, it’s far too many for Smart to still be coaching without any discipline.

At SEC Media Days in July, Smart addressed the arrests. 

“You want your kids, your players to make better decisions,” he said, according to WSB Channel 2. “I always talk about processing outcomes in wins and losses. We try not to base things on outcomes. In this case, the outcomes are very disappointing.

“But I am very pleased with the process we’ve put in in terms of education, driver safety, requiring defensive driving, education, talking about it, having leaders stand up and talk about it, bringing speakers in, suspending or dismissing players,” he added.

Smart also mentioned that players have received discipline in the forms of fines, suspensions and dismissal from the team. 

“I don’t know, to this point, anyone coaching college football that has suspended a player for a driving citation. We have, and we’ve also dismissed players based on driving citations. Nobody’s done that,” Smart said.

That’s all fine and good. Smart’s on the right path with those measures. Where he repeatedly gets it wrong apparently is the people he’s bringing into the program. One of the No. 1 responsibilities for any boss/coach/leader is to build a high-performing team. 

On the field, there’s no question that Smart has done that. Off the field, he has repeatedly failed to do so. No amount of pressure from the media or fans has made him stop and consider whether the players he’s bringing in will represent Georgia football well. 

Furthermore, the culture within the Georgia program is apparently bad enough that these offenses, mostly but not limited to driving issues, continue to happen no matter the roster turnover. Sure, some of the arrests may seem small, but viewed as a big picture, it’s a troubling trend. 

At what point does it become serious enough that Smart is held accountable by Georgia administration? The answer: probably never. As long as the wins and trophies continue piling up, history says the status quo will remain. Plenty of examples exist in college football throughout time.

That’s a shame for everyone involved in the Georgia program. The on-field winning should be the defining mark of the program, but instead, the arrests hang like a dark cloud over everything else. Individuals are responsible for their own actions, but it’s Smart’s job to ensure those unprepared for life as a major college football player don’t make it into his program, or at least quickly make the necessary adjustments.

“Culture” is a buzzword coaches love to throw around. Clearly, the Georgia culture has serious flaws in need of fixing.