It might be a good idea for Athens police to have stern lectures concerning the dangers of street racing printed on the back of their laminated Miranda warning cards.
They’d sure get plenty of use with UGA’s football team blasting around in their street rockets.
The 2024 college football season is upon us and the topic in the summer press conferences is, well, like the topic in the 2023 summer coach-talk sessions: Dangerous driving by Bulldogs.
In July, 2023, University of Georgia coach Kirby Smart talked about employing interventions and discipline to temper his team’s driving habits. He said: “I don’t know if we can ever eradicate speeding; I’m not sure that’s possible. But I’m damn sure going to try.”
“It’s not the volume of the speeding tickets; it’s the speed of the speeding tickets. That’s the bigger concern to me,” he continued. “High speeds, according to the Georgia State Patrol, is where you get bigger accidents.”
Six months earlier, in January 2023, a horrific crash placed the subject squarely on everyone’s minds. That was when recruiting analyst Chandler LeCroy and offensive lineman Devin Willock died after a night of celebrating the team’s second straight national championship.
Police said LeCroy was racing a vehicle driven by then-UGA star Jalen Carter at more than 100 mph before she ran off the road, struck two utility poles and slammed into a tree.
Credit: Compilation
Credit: Compilation
This summer, Smart had to answer the same questions. That’s because UGA players have had 24 serious traffic offenses in the 18 months since that fatal crash. In the 18 months before the tragedy, there were 23, according to records compiled by AJC reporters Dylan Jackson and Chip Towers.
After I wrote this column Friday, I saw that Athens Banner-Herald had unearthed more Bulldog cases, putting their total “at least 29 arrests or citations for speeding, reckless driving or racing since the (fatal) crash.” The Herald’s story included more players cited and additional tickets that were issued to athletes already listed the AJC’s accounting. If you add those new cases, you’d have more than 30. But who really knows? It’s a certainly fluid count.
A couple weeks ago, Smart told the media: “I’m very pleased with our process, in terms of education, driver safety, requiring defensive driving, talking about it, having leaders stand up and talk about it, bringing speakers in to talk about it, suspending players, dismissing players, which we’ve done.
“… I don’t know to this point any coach in college football who’s suspended a player for a driving citation. We have.”
But, he added, “That hasn’t controlled it and prevented it, so why are we still talking about it? Because we’ve had guys make poor decisions.”
Just days before Smart’s comments, on July 9, offensive lineman Bo Hughley lost control of his Chrysler 300 on a sharp curve near the university, crossed a pedestrian path, knocked down a 25 mph speed-limit sign and finally came to a stop missing a tire.
Hughley told cops he was traveling the speed limit. Police said a “200-foot damage path” indicated otherwise.
Recent defensive back signee Ellis Robinson IV was riding shotgun. The incident, no doubt, afforded the newbie a wide-eyed sense of how quickly things can go south.
Smart said that “leaders” are standing up to talk about reckless driving to their teammates. But some of their actions may overshadow the talking.
Credit: Olivia Bowdoin
Credit: Olivia Bowdoin
The day after Hughley’s crash, senior linebacker Smael Mondon Jr., who is considered a team leader, got pulled over by an officer who said he saw him flying down Broad Street in Athens, racing a car driven by freshman cornerback Demello Jones. An officer said he paced Mondon’s car at 75 mph, almost twice the speed limit.
Police said Mondon, who was driving a 2022 Dodge Charger, a car coveted by street racers everywhere, told them he wasn’t racing and that he didn’t know Jones. The freshman, apparently not sure how things were done around here, confirmed he was racing against his upper classmate.
Mondon certainly should know better. He arrived at the scene of last year’s fatal crash after being called by a teammate.
Interestingly, Jones was driving a 2021 Porsche Panamera, which is an $80,000 ride. Not bad for a 4-star defensive back from Swainsboro. But that’s where we are with NIL (name, image and likeness) money. That’s the cash and prizes now legally afforded to 18-to-22-year-olds to play college football.
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist, or a muscle car aficionado, to realize that such vehicles suddenly thrust into the hands of young guys can be very problematic.
An AJC analysis indicated that the NIL deals — and the players’ high-performance rides — have fueled the higher speeds. Last year, my colleagues wrote: “In 2019, before the NIL, Georgia players who received speeding citations drove an average of 54 mph. So far in 2023, the average speed is 79.”
The question is whether UGA players are more lead-footed than their compadres in other colleges. Or has the January 2023 tragedy put the program under the spotlight?
A fairly thorough Internet search does not find any other college program with the endemic problem that has bedeviled UGA.
Just throw the terms “speeding, reckless driving college football players” into a Google search and you’ll find Georgia, Georgia, Georgia.
It’s hardly the legacy that a successful coach wants.
