Georgia head football coach Kirby Smart this week admitted that lucrative NIL deals have put his players behind the wheel of some powerful automobiles, and they're paying for how they operate them on local roadways.
Multiple Bulldog football players have been cited for offseason speeding, and Smart made the comments in the shadow of the tragic death of University of Georgia football player Devin Willock and team staff member Chandler LeCroy who were killed in a high-speed car crash just hours after the Bulldogs won the College Football Championship.
“I’ll be the first to admit, we haven’t solved that issue or problem,” Smart told reporters at press conference held on Tuesday, according to Dawg Nation. “I don’t honestly know that anybody has, but for us it’s important to acknowledge it first.
“We’ve had a lot of intervention in terms of talking and visiting and discipline measures have been implemented.”
Related: Race Involving Another Bulldog Factored in Fatal Georgia Crash
Smart acknowledged that some of the speeding issues are in part due to the high-powered vehicles players have landed via NIL deals.
According to Dawg Nation, more than one Georgia player has been pulled over in a Jeep Trackhawk, a 707-horsepower vehicle capable of accelerating from 0-to-60 in 3.4 seconds and reaching 180 mph.
“NIL has given some of our players, and players in general, the capacity to get probably faster cars,” Smart said. “I think that points to (the AJC.com) article saying that it’s not necessarily just the volume of speeding tickets, it’s the speed of the speeding tickets.
“And that’s a bigger concern to me is the speed of the speeding tickets. Because high speeds, according to Georgia State Patrol who talked to our team, is where you get bigger accidents. And that’s the biggest concern we have in regards to that.”
Smart isn't against NIL, as he says the deals have done a lot of good for players as well, but he does worry about young, inexperienced players driving too fast.
“It is a tough situation to manage when you have 18- to-22 year old men, a lot of them driving for the first time,” Smart said. " Every fall we have 25 new guys. We’ve averaged five guys who come here at 18 years old with no driver’s license, and we continue to work at it.
“I don’t have the exact answer. I wish I did. But we’ll continue to work at it.
