Kirby Smart addresses recent arrests, says 'players know punishment'

The recent string of run-ins between Georgia Football players and police this spring has certainly created something for head coach Kirby Smart to talk about. Four players on the roster for the fall – plus a pair of stars from the 2022 team that were in the pre-draft process – have been arrested since the Bulldogs brought home a second straight National Championship in January. As Smart says though, the players know that their actions will have consequences.

“Education is the first thing, because everybody wants to know what the punishment is. Players know what the punishment is and that’s important for our players to acknowledge and understand,” Smart said on Tuesday, speaking to the media at SEC Spring Meetings in Destin, Fla. “I want to educate further and make sure they understand … Part of being an 18-19-year old young man, a 20-year-old young man is learning from mistakes. I was that age once, too.”

“We don’t condone anything,” Smart continued. “They’ve got to do a good job of making good decisions off the field and we’ve got a lot more education things lined up about that. But it’s not just about that, it’s about everything that they can get into as far as gambling, drugs and alcohol and treatment of the opposite sex. We’ve got tons of speakers that come in during our summer speaker program and we’ve ramped that up.”

Georgia’s most recent arrest came from senior wide receiver Marcus Rosemy-Jacksaint. He was taken in by Athens-Clarke Country Police for misdemeanor charges of reckless driving and speeding. Rosemy-Jacksaint was going twice the speed limit, 90 miles per hour in a 45 mph zone.

“No one is more embarrassed than Marcus Rosemy-Jacksaint and his parents,” Smart said. “They’re crushed. But Marcus has to learn from this, so does DeNyon (Morrissette).”

Morrissette, going into his second season with the program, was arrested earlier in May. He was charged with driving under the influence of drugs, driving too fast for conditions, following too closely and violating Class D restrictions for not driving between midnight and 5:00 a.m.

Including the arrest of Jalen Carter – who had already declared for the NFL Draft by the time of his incident – Morrissette’s arrest was the third driving-related arrest in less than five months for Georgia with Rosemy-Jacksaint’s marking the fourth.

Others arrests include that of Jamon Dumas-Johnson and Rara Thomas among active players plus Stetson Bennett as far as former players go.

“The standards have been created here for a long time and that doesn’t change. We want our players to live up to those and mistakes they make, we treat them like we do our kids. We discipline them, we try to prevent them, we try to educate them. We try to do all we can to help our student-athletes in a positive way,” Smart said on March 14th, his first time addressing media since the tragic crash of January 15th that took the lives of two members of the football program. “It’s been a tough go with the death of Chandler (LeCroy) and Devin (Willock). As you guys know, it’s a tragic accident and our players have been through a lot when you talk about the health and mental health that some of our guys have needed since the accident. It’s been a really tough go of it for them. I feel like our players are starting to be able to acknowledge and they understand when you make mistakes, decisions that are costly can cost you your life. That’s not to be taken lightly. I think our guys understand that and we continue to educate them and we’ll continue to do all we can as a university to make sure they behave and do that in a proper way.”

“We’ve got complete control of our program and our kids in our program. Do kids make mistakes? Yes, young student-athletes make mistakes. They do. It happens all across the country and it happens here,” Smart added. “There’s no lack of control in our program. I think our kids across the board will tell you that we have an incredible culture here, we have connective tissue that brings our team together. Our guys do make mistakes. That’s historically probably going to happen when you’re 18 to 22-year-olds. Our job as coaches is to prevent that from happening and that starts with me. You do it by how you educate your players and how you discipline your players and we’ll continue to do that at a high standard.”