Josh Harvey-Clemons’ Georgia football career started controversially, and Tuesday it ended that way.
The Bulldogs’ dismissed the star defensive player Tuesday for an undisclosed violation of team rules. The news came in the form of a succinct two-sentence email from UGA’s sports communication office without comment from coach Mark Richt.
Harvey-Clemons was going to miss the first three games of next season because of a four-game suspension that began with the Jan. 1 Gator Bowl game against Nebraska. That was for a second violation of UGA’s marijuana-use policy.
The 6-foot-5, 215-pound safety also was suspended for the Bulldogs’ opener against Clemson this past season after admitting to police that he smoked pot in a dorm room with a teammate. That was considered the first strike of school’s drug-use code.
Neither Richt, Harvey-Clemons nor Harvey-Clemons’ legal guardian, his grandfather Woodrow Clemons, returned calls or messages seeking comment.
“I really don’t know what happened,” said former Georgia secondary coach Scott Lakatos, who was Harvey-Clemons’ position coach before he resigned last month. “The last conversation I had with him was I told him, ‘you’ve got to get your personal life cleaned up before you blow it.’ I hope he didn’t.”
Harvey-Clemons hadn’t even made it to Georgia before controversy accompanied his name. A five-star recruit out of Lowndes High, he infamously signed a letter-of-intent with the Bulldogs on national TV on signing day in February 2012. However, he did not fax the copy to UGA because his grandfather allegedly refused to sign it, preferring that Harvey-Clemons go to Florida. Harvey-Clemons sent the letter the next morning.
Harvey-Clemons arrived at Georgia as an outside linebacker and played a reserve role at that position as a freshman. His play was limited mainly to special teams, and he finished with 14 tackles.
Harvey-Clemons was emerging as a star after former defensive coordinator Todd Grantham moved him to strong safety and the “star” hybrid position created for him to take advantage of his unique skill set. Despite missing the first and last games of the season, Harvey-Clemons finished third on the team with 66 tackles and added an interception, 5.5 tackles for loss and five pass break-ups.
His most memorable play at Georgia, however, is one he would rather forget. It was Harvey-Clemons’ deflection of an overthrown pass to Auburn’s Ricardo Louis that resulted in a 73-yard, game-winning touchdown pass with 25 seconds remaining in November. Had he simply knocked down the pass, the Bulldogs would have knocked off the eventual SEC champions.
The question now is what happens with Harvey-Clemons’ football career. A rising junior, he could transfer to another FBS school, but would have to sit out a season. He could go to a junior college or an FCS school and play immediately, or he could sit out the 2014 season and test the NFL draft in 2015.
Woodrow Clemons told the Athens Banner-Herald on Tuesday that his grandson plans to go to school somewhere.
Georgia Military College coach Bert Williams often takes in UGA outcasts in hopes of resurrecting their careers. That worked for former Bulldog Ty Flournoy-Smith, who was dismissed when he and Harvey-Clemons were caught smoking pot in a UGA dorm in February 2013. Flournoy-Smith played at GMC last season and signed a scholarship with Alabama earlier this month.
But Williams said Tuesday he “hadn’t talk with Mark (Richt) at all about (Harvey-Clemons),” though he was familiar with the defensive back’s situation.
“That was one thing about ‘Ty Flo,’ he was able to do away with that stuff and did a good job down here and got himself set up to finish,” Williams said. “Knock on wood, but so far he’s done everything we’ve asked him to do and had a real good attitude.”
Harvey-Clemons joins a long list of recent high-profile Georgia players who were dismissed because of disciplinary reasons, including tailback Isaiah Crowell, cornerback-turned-quarterback Nick Marshall and quarterback Zach Mettenberger.
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