re: More reckless driving/racing arrests

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It’s national news at this point

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Is it, though? Or is it just news for the AJC UGA haters? If it were for everyone, why aren't we hearing of other arrests - or are we the only school that happens to?

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If other programs had this same issue I guarantee we’d all know about it. It’s national news at this point

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Did you know about these 4 arrests in a 5 month period? The quoted parts below were compiled from two articles.

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LINK

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Chandavian Bradley is fourth Tennessee football player charged with driving violation since October

Tennessee football player Chandavian Bradley was cited for reckless driving on March 23, according to a University of Tennessee police report obtained by Knox News. Bradley is the fourth UT football player cited for driving violations since October, according to UT police reports obtained by Knox News. Citations against All-SEC defensive end James Pearce and former starting cornerback Doneiko Slaughter were dismissed after they paid court costs, and reserve running back DeSean Bishop reached a plea deal that will cause his violation to be expunged if he stays out of trouble for six months.

"We are aware of the citation, and this matter is being handled internally," UT said in a statement to Knox News.

Bradley, 19, was issued a misdemeanor citation for reckless driving by UTPD during a traffic stop around 11 p.m. on March 23 at the site of The Rock, the iconic campus symbol at the intersection of Volunteer Boulevard and Pat Head Summitt Street. He was driving a 2020 Dodge Charger. No other information was provided in the report.

Pearce was charged with speeding, driving on a suspended license, failure to present insurance, registration improperly displayed, disobeying police instructions during a traffic stop, and improper window tinting. According to the report, Pearce’s vehicle had expired temporary tags. He had no form of identification nor could he provide proof of insurance. Regarding him disobeying instructions, Pearce had to be asked multiple times to remove himself from the vehicle. Later when police were searching his vehicle, he was told that the car would be towed. They instructed him to stand beside assisting officers on the scene, but he walked toward his car instead. Police then impounded his vehicle and Pearce was promptly arrested. Court records show Pearce's charges were dismissed Dec. 12, the date he was scheduled to appear in court for his arraignment.

Slaughter, 22, was issued two misdemeanor citations by UTPD during a traffic stop at about 1 a.m. on Nov. 19, six hours after UT's home loss to Georgia. He was issued citations for reckless driving and improper lane change because he drove over the median, the police report said. The reckless driving charge was dismissed after Slaughter paid costs of $220. The improper lane change was dismissed outright with no cost. Both charges were expunged from his record after costs were paid.

Bishop, a former Mr. Football winner at Karns High, was pulled over by police just before 1 a.m. on Oct. 29. Bishop, 19, was issued a citation for reckless driving in a 2018 Dodge Charger, according to the report. No other details were provided. On March 20, Bishop entered a guilty plea with an agreement from the court that the charges will be dismissed and expunged if he stays out of trouble for six months. He is to report back to the court on Sept. 10 to determine if he met those conditions.

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I'm not saying that these guys don't deserve harsh punishment, but this is happening everywhere there are young male athletes with new access to expensive and fast cars. I suspect it's being covered up and handled internally most times. The AJC shone a bright spotlight on UGA and now it's national news every time they get a vehicle violation.

As others have said, it's time for Kirby to take a harder line. My guess is that Smael, maybe both, will end up paying a big price for this huge lapse in judgment.

Everyone wanted to hand kids hundreds of thousands of dollars. You don’t get in as much trouble in a 120hp 9 sec 0-60 Accord as you do in a 700hp 3.5 sec 0-60 charger

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Those $26 bonds for those dangerous activities….

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The 26 jersey should be reserved for the fastest player on the squad hence there forth.

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They probably would if a couple of my coworkers had died street racing in a company car 18 months ago

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Fair point, but I was assuming that they were driving their own car and that no one was killed.

I'm just saying that it's not a "one size fits all" situation or discipline and that, fair or unfair, not all "employees" are treated equally.

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Bo's just said reckless driving so who knows what that actually means, could be anything.

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According to the report, a wreck was involved.

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Definitely not happening “everywhere” and none of those examples include DUIs, which I believe we’ve also had a few of in the last couple of years on top of the speeding and reckless driving.

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You earlier said

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I can’t think of another program that is in the news every 6 weeks [that's hyperbole] with a new player getting arrested for the same genre of crime over and over again.

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So I gave you a recent example of a nearby rival program that had 4 recent arrests for the same "genre of crime". Or were theirs a different "genre of crime"? You lump all of ours together and exclude theirs from the "genre"?

and you said

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If other programs had this same issue, I guarantee we’d all know about it

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But apparently you weren't aware of the same issue at Tennessee. So I was letting you know that other programs do have this same issue. And it doesn't get the same level of publicity that it does at Georgia, for several reasons that most people can figure out, if they're honest.

Number 1 program at the moment, i.e., high profile target for the media.
Fertile recruiting ground coveted by other teams (and their fans in the media).
Overzealous and sometimes erroneous/misleading reporting by a large state newspaper. The AJC was actually retracing steps/tailing UGA players. They went back for years and actually counted every minor traffic violation.
Some college town PD's cover up things to help the program. Dispute this if you like, but I've seen it happen many times over the years.

I've been following college football long enough to know that lots of very bad behavior gets covered up; some places more than others. You show me a 17-22 yo male with a fancy, high powered car or motorcycle, and I'll show you someone who has very likely been speeding excessively on public roads. If it's not being caught, charged and reported everywhere, that doesn't mean it's not happening everywhere. As for the DUI (change of argument), do you believe all those middle of the night Tennessee reckless drivers were sober? No smoking or drinking? Were they tested?

You seem to believe that this is almost exclusively a UGA problem? Do you believe that Kirby Smart encourages bad driving, or that Athens/UGA is somehow less strict on violators, thus encouraging bad behavior (did you notice the Knoxville outcomes I showed in my earlier post)? Or do we just recruit "bad seeds" and all the other programs get the good boys? I believe all of that is plain silliness, bordering on trolling. If this isn't happening everywhere, it's pretty damn close.

This is absolutely not acceptable

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Nah

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Fair enough. Since you insist this is a Georgia problem that doesn't happen elsewhere or we'd know about it, this might be a thread you'll like.

LINK

Join in with the Tennessee trolls; they're big proponents of the "Kirby's flawed culture " theory. I've read or heard about it from nearly every single Tennessee internet publisher, including the big recruiting services, over the last year. Probably because Heupel's supposed pristine culture is their big selling point in recruiting, and they want to paint Kirby's program as tainted, much like you've done here. In fact, Josh will undoubtedly be relaying something similar to your opinions about UGA to some recruit by tonight (he probably won't be using mine).

Interestingly, this is very similar to the pervasive "Mark Richt has lost control" narrative that damaged Richt's locker room and recruiting, and eventually took him down. It's a good strategy, paint a coach as having a poor culture due to lax discipline, excessively and repeatedly report every problem, and force him to overreact, which doesn't help the culture. I remember Auburn fans chanting "Mark Richt has lost control" even as they had Auburn cops pulling off duty baby sitting shifts to keep the players out of trouble.

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They should both get booted imo.

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Absolutely hell no. Make him run steps at 0500 instead.