Is Sammy Hagar in charge of recruiting at Georgia? Because the Bulldogs can’t drive 55.
As fast as they run the 40-yard dash, football players are driving even faster on Athens roads. Just last week, offensive lineman Bo Hughley was speeding through East Campus Village when his vehicle hit a curb, shearing a wheel completely off and knocking down a sign listing the speed limit at 25 miles per hour, according to Athens-Clarke County police. Hughley was arrested on a reckless driving charge, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
Also last week, linebacker Smael Mondon was arrested and charged with racing on Broad Street downtown. In May, receiver Sacovie White was charged with reckless driving and driving the wrong way down Clayton Street.
Authority figures don’t seem to be taking all the speeding—and worse—seriously. Even ex-Georgia star and current player coordinator Jarvis Jones got in on the act. He was clocked going 86 in a 40 on West Broad Street last September, police said. And White’s high school coach, Steven Gates, defended him to the Athens Banner-Herald.
“He made a mistake by turning down a one-way road. What I’m proud of is that there was no drinking or speeding involved that I would have been disappointed in obviously,” Gates said. “But a traffic violation that occurs on the regular, bet he won’t go down that road again.”
However, a police report alleged that White was driving “at a high speed” and that a passenger was hanging outside the vehicle. The bars had just closed at 2 a.m., and the area was packed with pedestrians.
For the second year in a row, head coach Kirby Smart was forced to address his players’ driving habits at the annual SEC Media Days. “The incidents that we’ve had off the field are not something that we condone,” Smart said Tuesday. “It’s very unfortunate, disappointing I guess is the best word. I always talk about process and outcomes. I talked about that with wins and losses that we try not to base things on the outcomes with wins and losses. In this situation, the outcomes are very disappointing.”
Players are being fined name, image and likeness payments through the booster group the Classic City Collective, Smart said. Some are being suspended, but he would not say who or for which games.
Whatever Smart and his staff have been doing, though, it isn’t working. By the AJC’s count, 19 players have been charged with traffic violations a total of 24 times since January 2023. Fresh off celebrating the team’s second national championship in a row, offensive lineman Devin Willock and recruiting staffer Chandler LeCroy were killed when, after a night drinking downtown, LeCroy crashed a team rental car while racing Willock’s teammate Jalen Carter on Barnett Shoals Road at over 100 miles per hour. They were two of the 21 people who died in car crashes in Athens last year.
NIL money likely has something to do with it. Players are spending six- and seven-figure endorsements on high-powered vehicles like Dodge Charger Hellcats (which feature 700-horsepower engines) or, in quarterback Carson Beck’s case, a $300,000 Lamborghini.
“Obviously, my car is fast, 100 percent, but I don’t drive like an idiot,” Beck told reporters.
Running back Trevor Etienne—who was charged with DUI after being pulled over for speeding on South Milledge Avenue in March—pleaded no contest to reckless driving last week. He avoided jail time, but received a stern lecture from Municipal Court Judge Marcy Jolles, according to the ABH.
“I see you were driving a very new Audi vehicle. I do not know if you have a name, image and likeness situation or if that’s being done through that,” Jolles told Etienne at the July 10 hearing. “I’m sure you and [attorney Kim] Stephens have discussed that you are a public figure, whether you realize that or not. What you do, people see because of your role at the university. I would hope that you make better choices in the future to make a better example for those that are watching.”
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