Another Georgia football player has been ticketed for excessive speeding and subsequently arrested on a warrant.
Defensive lineman Tyrion Ingram-Dawkins was cited for speeding by the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office Monday morning. He was going 90 miles per hour in a 70 mph zone along I-85. Ingram-Dawkins was then arrested on a warrant for failure to appear in a case in Athens. The Athens-Clarke County arrest records show the warrant was for a citation for a handicap parking violation.
Ingram-Dawkins, a redshirt sophomore, was arrested at 4:05 p.m. and released on a $13 bond 50 minutes later.
Georgia football players have now been ticketed or arrested at least 13 times for excessive speeding or reckless driving since a high-speed, alcohol-involved crash took the lives of Devin Willock and Chandler LeCroy on Jan. 15. In a story last month, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that since 2016, Georgia players had been cited at least 60 times for going 20 mph or more over the speed limit. Since the story published, reporters discovered an additional 14 tickets issued to Georgia players in Oconee County for speeding at the same level.
The latest incident before Monday occurred July 5 when freshman linebacker Samuel M’Pemba was ticketed for driving 88 in a 55 mph zone in Athens as he returned to campus from the summer break.
Georgia head coach Kirby Smart said in March “we’ve got complete control of our program and our kids in our program.”
Georgia players have received speeding or reckless-driving citations now at least seven times since Smart made that statement.
Earlier this month, in a press briefing with Georgia beat reporters, Smart admitted to the speeding problem.
“I’ll be the first to admit we haven’t solved that issue or problem,” Smart said. “I don’t know that anybody has but, for us, it’s important to acknowledge it first. ... 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.”
At SEC Media Days earlier this month in Nashville, center Sedrick Van Pran spoke of the speeding issue. He was one of several players to speak at an earlier team meeting.
“To be honest with you, a bunch of guys spoke to the team,” Van Pran said. “It’s understood that we must do better. Mistakes do happen, but that doesn’t mean that it’s acceptable, if that makes sense. Like, mistakes happen and you own them and you move on at the end of the day. But you can’t keep allowing it to happen. I think that was the biggest thing.”
