Head coach Kirby Smart comments on latest Georgia football player arrests
Two young Georgia Bulldogs football players were arrested following vehicle-related incidents last week.
Sophomore wide receiver Nitro Tuggle was arrested early Thursday morning in Athens for reckless driving and speeding.
Sophomore offensive lineman Marques Easley was arrested Friday for an accident that occured on Monday, March 17. Easley was charged with reckless driving and reckless conduct after he allegedly crashed his Dodge Challenger into a power distribution box, hitting two parked cars along the way.
Georgia head coach Kirby Smart shared his first comments on a situation that he has had to deal with 32 times.
“Disappointed, obviously, in those two young men in their decision-making process for each one,” Smart said during his Tuesday press conference. “Both of them are younger players that made crucial mistakes.”
Coach Smart and Georgia’s football program has tried to do everything they can to keep the number of incidents down through education, including bringing in local law enforcement to speak to his team, special driving courses, and the discussing the consequence of fining players by withholding NIL payments through Georgia’s Classic City Collective. Additionally, players have been made aware of possible suspension and dissmissal from the team.
However, Smart has made it aware that he is far from ignorant to the fact that at the end of the day, these players are still kids.
“We’ll continue to look at these on a case-by-case basis,” Smart said. “There’s things that surround each one of these outside of just the immediate reaction is, ‘How in the world can this happen again?’ And I get that, but each one is a case-by-case basis. You have to look at as these are your children. That’s the way I look at it. I look (at) what I would do with my children and there’s 18 to 19 to 20 year olds. They make mistakes. The consequences that come with those are based on a case-by-case basis. That’s really what these two right now are doing.”
For now, both Tuggle and Easley have been suspended from team activities until further no
