Kirby Smart says he’s putting player’s recovery over football

Athens – Kirby Smart is trying to fix as much as he can at Georgia. How players hit. How players think. How players develop into leaders and show accountability and walk into a stadium for a big game in Athens or Knoxville or Jacksonville and prove there’s substance behind the hype.

But Kirby Smart is just a football coach and he can’t fix everything. He can’t fix Jonathan Ledbetter.

That’s because whatever demons Ledbetter may have related to substance abuse can only be fixed by himself. That’s how recovery works, for as much as most parents and coaches prefer to rush this process along and forget it ever happened. Smart understands this, having seen close up what the disease can do to individuals and families. It’s why he said he is determined to let treatment specialists determine when Ledbetter, Georgia’s talented sophomore defensive end, returns to football activities.