Despite latest arrest, Georgia insists it doesn’t have discipline problem
Note: There will be a “Ten at 10″ this week but it has been moved to Wednesday . . .
ATHENS — After having one of their better years in a while in regard to off-field problems for players, trouble is starting to stack up a little for Georgia.
Branden Smith’s arrest for marijuana possession in South Alabama Sunday night represented the second arrest of UGA football player this year — cornerback Sanders Commings was arrested for a domestic violence incident in January — and third if one counts tight end Orson Charles’ arrest for DUI last week (Charles declared for the NFL draft and not an official member of the team).
And that’s just players who have run into trouble from the law. Head coach Mark Richt dismissed three players from the team in January for stealing from a teammate.
But Richt doesn’t believe there is a lack of discipline in the program and contends that the Bulldogs are stricter than most programs when it comes to keeping players in line.
“When guys do make mistakes, two things are very important: How we handle it and how he handles it,” Richt said. “Are we going to discipline our players the way they ought to be disciplined according to what they’ve done? I think we do that. I think we do that more strictly than most people do. If you look at other people’s policies, ours is much tougher than just about anybody other’s pocliy I’ve seen. So because some of our guys end up with a game suspension or whatever it may be, a kid at another school may do the very same thing and their policy doesn’t say that it has to be that way. I mean, I don’t care what they do. All I’m saying is I think it’s important how you handle it.”
Unlike many programs, UGA’s punishments are written down in black and white in the Student-Athlete Handbook. For instance, in the case of Smith’s arrest for marijuana possession, that falls under UGA’s codes for “alcohol and drug-related misconduct.” That means an automatic suspension from 10 percent of competition dates (in this case one game), future drug-testing, education and counseling and additional discipline as determined by what’s called the “Comprehensive Action Plan Committee.”
Said Richt: “Our goal when our guys make mistakes is to find out the truth about it and then discipline it properly. The second thing that is important is how they respond to it. If they learn from their mistakes and become better people because of it, then that’s a positive thing in that guy’s life. If he’s not truthful about it and acts like he didn’t do anything wrong and his behavior isn’t going to change in any way shape or form, then he’s probably not going to be at Georgia very long. That’s just kind of the way things go. To think every single guy is not ever going to make a mistake and be perfect, I don’t think is realistic. It’s certainly what we search for. Is it frustrating? Yes, it is.”
Adding to Richt’s frustration was the timing of the Smith’s incident. Just last week, Athletic Director Greg McGarity assembled every UGA student-athlete at the Georgia Center for Continuing Educaton to talk about the importance of good behavior during the upcoming spring break (which began this week). The football team followed that up with a separate meeting of their own. So it’s not like the issue wasn’t addressed.
“Oh yeah, we always do,” Richt said. “We ought to video those [meetings] just to make sure everybody knows we do that.”
Ultimately, it comes down to the character of the players the coaches recruit to campus. I asked McGarity how much he held coaches responsible for their players’ behavior.
“Accountability is a foregone conclusion,” McGarity said. “You hold coaches accountable in every sport for their entire program. That’s just part of the deal, just like I’m accountable for every employee. I’m accountable for 250 full-time staff members. So we’re all accountable to someone and that language is currently in [Richt's] contract right now.”
– Chip Towers, The UGA Blog
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262 comments Add your comment
LSU # 1
March 13th, 2012
1:10 pm
Bama, can we get a rematch? we did win the sec……
kybodawg
March 13th, 2012
1:15 pm
right now there are no players at ala, aub, fla, tn, or tech that smoke pot, drink or do any of the other things that 17, 18 yr olds. do ga. prolbem is that we dont have police who look the other way. winning in bama is everything.
The news about Richt's Extension
March 13th, 2012
1:15 pm
Gives encouragement to the rest of the SEC East.
GTBob...
March 13th, 2012
1:17 pm
If you really did attend GT you know nothing of real college life so shut up. If you didn’t, you’re an idiot for liking GT so shut up.
__________________________________________________________________________________
Nice, actually, I didn’t go to Tech or college. Do you think I’d have time to write on these blogs if I did? But I do come on here to rile things up by making UGA sound like the only school that ever has problems…it makes my day go by quicker. Yesterday I was on a different UGA blog talking about coaching because my existence influences blog content…therefore, I am important.
Referee
March 13th, 2012
1:17 pm
How come this UGA blog is visited by so many Alabama and Ga Tech fans? Don you not have a blog of your own? Have any of you noticed that there are many more students on every campus that are arrested for being an 18 year old away from home for the first time. The reason you don’t is the average student is not under the microscope like athletics are. Athens police go out of their way to make examples of any football player that the can. And the media loves it.
Albert
March 13th, 2012
1:17 pm
Legalize pot in Georgia and we won’t have this problem.
ga gator
March 13th, 2012
1:20 pm
kybodawg
March 13th, 2012
1:15 pm
right now there are no players at ala, aub, fla, tn, or tech that smoke pot, drink or do any of the other things that 17, 18 yr olds. do ga. prolbem is that we dont have police who look the other way. winning in bama is everything.
Kybo I can only speak about UGA because I live here now and UF because that is who I follow and I can assure you that Gainesville police arrest UF players. Muschamp booted 6 players from the team since he arrived including the top CB in the SEC for 2010. As for Bama, who knows what Tuscaloosa Police do but I would bet you Bama players are more afraid of screwing up and facing Saban than UGA players are when facing Richt.
Mark Richt doesn’t think UGA has a discipline issue | CollegeFootballTalk
March 13th, 2012
1:22 pm
[...] the full blog on what Richt had to say, courtesy of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, but below is a clip: “When guys do make mistakes, [...]
tardawg
March 13th, 2012
1:30 pm
typical tide fan I will take a character coach any day over one that has no honor or character all he cares about me, but if you don’t like the Way things are in GA move back to AL.
BG
March 13th, 2012
1:33 pm
Chip, Name on school in the SEC more strict than UGA.
G-Dawg
March 13th, 2012
1:35 pm
Who cares!!!!! Life moves on…and players will step up!!
RxDawg
March 13th, 2012
1:42 pm
“Slobberknocker this is a FOOTBALL blog.”
Actually Bammer, this is the UGA sports blog. But thanks for caring =D
And Bob, I didnt miss your analogy. I just didn’t follow it. Seeing how you completely made it up and jumped from a misdamenor to a serious and violent felony.
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March 13th, 2012
1:42 pm
[...] off-field problems for players, trouble is starting to stack up a small for Georgia. Read more on Atlanta Journal Constitution (weblog) Posted by admin browse, gestures, Latest, smartphone, Sony, uses Permalink Latest Latest [...]
dawginduluth
March 13th, 2012
1:48 pm
5 more years of this crap. We reap what we sow. I hope all you Richt suck-ups are happy. Pathetic.
Rationale
March 13th, 2012
1:57 pm
It is not a discipline problem. It is an image problem. These kids do not care about their own image.
59bulldawg
March 13th, 2012
2:00 pm
OK . . . I agree that Richt can’t be with each player 24/7. I also agree that if we didn’t sign these talented but “pain in the butt” players, our rivals probably would. I agree that Richt and McGarity have tried to be proactive in trying to prevent problems. So why does it keep happening??? I humbly suggest that if Richt can figure that out he’ll be competing regularly for SEC championships again. Hey I’m sick of this crap too. How many years running now have we had players suspended for the first few games of the season? The problem, in my opinion, is the players don’t respect Richt. Sure they “like” him but they sure as hell don’t fear him or else they would obey him. I wonder what a little peer to peer pressure might do if the entire team was punished each and every time someone stepped out of line. Yeah I know it’s unfair but if I had to run extra windsprints everytime some goofball messed up, I think I’d be looking to try to personally correct the situation . . . along with the rest of the team. It might help some of our “me first” athletes better understand the concept of team and perhaps even a few consequences when the team is not happy.
T
March 13th, 2012
2:02 pm
So Richt thinks his discipline is tougher than most? The guy who had the option of suspending Crowell for the Florida game but chose to delay the punishment until New Mexico. You could call that kind of punishment a lot of things, but tough? Situational punishment yes. Tough, no.
Rooty Tooty
March 13th, 2012
2:04 pm
Enter your comments here
Hahahahahahahahaha, say it ain’t so coach
superBee
March 13th, 2012
2:05 pm
we is some cheatin mo fo’s and ain’t that good at it.gt bob thinks we is a clean program.butt we ain;t.
Time for other SEC teams to man up
March 13th, 2012
2:07 pm
UGA and UK are only SEC teams that require game suspensions upon first failed drug test. We need a uniform NCAA policy on drug testing and punishments to level the playing field. We don’t know how many drug violations there are on other teams because the player would have to flunk two drug tests to lose playing time.
Any one that doesn’t believe these things are happening all over, probably believe Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone.
Terry
March 13th, 2012
2:26 pm
ga gator, Bama had one of their RB’s caught just last year with marijuana, does that mean he’s not afraid of Saban? Please, it has nothing to do with a discipline problem, its the individual, I had one of the strictest dad’s growing up, and me, and my brother still did thing’s that were wrong, it had nothing to do with my dad, it was that me, and my brother wanted to do it, and we would risk a butt kicking just to do it, some kids will do what ever they want, and there is nothing a parent, or coach can do.
UGADawg83
March 13th, 2012
2:28 pm
I must say that Smith’s arrest is a clear case of bad judgment. He knows who he is and what he represents. The thing is if he were Branden Smith, non-athlete UGA student this isn’t news.
1 4 GT
March 13th, 2012
2:32 pm
Dick Ginz—-does that photo depict a student dorm in Athens or Tuscaloosa??
Trey Mehrebutts, UGA Alumnite
March 13th, 2012
2:35 pm
My time at UGA was some of the best time of my life and i will ALWAYs be a Bulldog in my heart and on my biceps where I got the UGA tattoo and Uga tattoo combined so nobody else has one just like it. If we could tattoo our players with tattoos that reflect school pride instead of gang tattoos I think they would be better citizens and better future alumnites. Also, I don’t care for all the bling on the field I think that looks tackee and out of place on the football field. We are having to many arrests but Coach Richt thinks things are not a problem and he’s getting the big bucks so I guess he’s right and even Coach Grantham is probably making more than the $750,000 a season now so I guess he can buy anything he needs to for recruiting purposes like a fax machine or a car phone or a sports car. Go Dawgs! Hairy Dawgs! We rund this state!
Trey Mehrebutts, UGA Alumnite
March 13th, 2012
2:41 pm
I don’t go to all the games but the ones I go to are usually victories because home fans get to see such weak teams now and we whip them pretty bad even when the running backs can’t play for suspensions or arrests or whatever. Good old southern rivalries seem to be a thing of the past now that we schedule junior colleges and barber colleges and we almost always whip ‘em and send ‘em home. Being a UGA alumnite makes me proud as punch and I think I may run down to Walmart and buy some official Bulldog memorabilaiai like caps and shirts and belt buckles and mugs to drink out of when you are thirsty.
1 4 GT
March 13th, 2012
2:51 pm
Concerned—-I like your ideas for solving these type problems. I believe it would work. Since I was not in the USMC, I don’t know how true “code red” from the Tom Cruise/Jack Nicholson movie is, but I can envision that being very effective. I would guess that the team captains are most likely the team “leaders”, let them mete out punishments to the offenders. If the “crime” is severe enough, punish the entire team. Sooner or later, the “bad boys” will get the “message”. The coaches might have to turn an occasional “blind eye”. Yeah, I can see this working really well.
Pulpwud Smiff
March 13th, 2012
3:07 pm
Missouri 34, Georgia 17
Trey Mehrebutts, UGA Alumnite
March 13th, 2012
3:10 pm
When I was at UGA I didn’t play football but I went to all the games and I can tell you it is some kind of fun up in those stands when the coeds are getting a little tipsy from the beer and jerky and some of them will sometimes get sick and we would bet on who they would get sick on sitting in front of them or on one of the sides. We also watched the games but all we did back then was hand the ball to the tailback and we can’t do that now because all our tailbacks are suspended or in jail on most game days.
G-Dawg
March 13th, 2012
3:10 pm
A Code Red should be enforced on the field throughout Spring Practice on all violators…maybe that’ll curb this nonsense!
Butt Smear Building
March 13th, 2012
3:10 pm
Any more arrests for DUI, beating up women, or illegal drugs this week?
dawgfan
March 13th, 2012
3:30 pm
I used to buy Richt’s line on this but now I’m starting to think there is a correlation between this stuff and what happens on the field. When these guys get arrested it tells me that they don’t take their position on the team seriously and if they don’t take it seriously how would they be giving their best effort on Saturdays? And let me tell you one thing about these arrests: where there is smoke there is fire. We only hear about the ones that get caught. I don’t believe for a second that Brandon Smith is the only one that smokes up or that Sanders Commings is the only one that roughs up his girlfriend. Maybe that’s not fair but its also logical. There are simply TOO MANY of these stupid arrests for these to be isolated incidents. I’m tired of it. If Richt’s discipline procedures aren’t working then maybe he is recruiting the wrong kind of guys to begin with.
No SEC Title since 2005. No victories over an elite opponent in years and years and years. Meanwhile, the embarrassing arrests and suspensions continue to mount. At what point do we stop the madness people?
Thanks.
pj
March 13th, 2012
3:34 pm
20 years ago, the same # of kids got drunk and drove, smoked a little pot and got in bar brawls. Only difference now is smart phones, social media and a desperate press corps that has seen its bottom line plummet and will print anything to sell the newscasts or newspapers.
blah
March 13th, 2012
3:41 pm
test
CasualObserver
March 13th, 2012
3:44 pm
The other kid in the car had the drugs. Only in Alabama would two black kids be pulled over and searched for a tag light being out and “following too close”. The real “crime” was DWB.
CND
March 13th, 2012
3:44 pm
EVERY team has players who get in trouble. Everyone always acts like UGA is so bad with discipline but the truth is, everyone has these problems. These kids are young and are going to get in trouble. Some won’t and some will. That is college kids for you. A head coach can only do so much. The rest is left to the players. All you haters can go worry about you own teams. The only reason we don’t know about your trouble, is because we don’t read your blogs!
trupert
March 13th, 2012
3:53 pm
Half of these Alabama fans actually believe that Saban runs a clean program, his number of players arrested are lower because he magically wills his players to never drink or smoke, and he didn’t lie when he said ” we don’t cut players and I don’t know anybody who does”, etc, and the other half know the truth and pretend or just go along with the lie.
Which one are you? How can any Alabama fan actually come on here and spout this smack against Mark Richt when it should be obvious that Saban’s running a dirty program and not suspending players for doing the same things that Richt is suspending players for.
I don’t know which is more deplorable and pathetic. The one who buy Saban’s lies or the one who promotes Sabans lies as truth.
How did Saban handel his starting player who got arrested for Domestic Violance? He called a press conference the very next day after the player was arrested and announced that Courney Upshaw would not be suspended and he would not miss any practice or game time.
“This is as fine a young man as we have in the program,” Saban said. “Really a great person. Really works hard academically. I couldn’t ask anybody to be a better representative of the organization than he is. He really overachieves as a football player”. And the Alabama fans all said, I don’t care what he did, just don’t let him miss any playing time , I’m all in coach!
Montgomery
March 13th, 2012
3:56 pm
not just in Alabama CasualObserver…
reid
March 13th, 2012
3:57 pm
The most shocking part of this story is that you can get ARRESTED!?!?? for having marijuana? Maybe I’m just old, but I can’t believe it’s not just a citation
CND
March 13th, 2012
4:11 pm
I get tired of hearing that Richt is recruiting the wrong type of players. We recruit the same ones that everyone else does. Branden Smith was a 5 star recruit wanted by every program. What would you have wanted him to do, not recruit him. Then you would have went on and on about how we miss out on the top talent in the state. Quit being such hypocrits and let the coach do his job. 10 years from now kids are still going to be smoking pot and getting arrested. It’s just the way it is
Andrew
March 13th, 2012
4:19 pm
Hey The Tide is rolling and nothing can stop it,
Don’t you have some trees to kill our some passed out guy to put your junk on?
realisticfan
March 13th, 2012
4:24 pm
Chip, how disappointing that you and all the sports talk guys and the columnists at the AJC constantly want to blame Richt for college kids doing stupid things. Are you suggesting that Tech and Bama and Fla and every other school in the South didn’t recruit Smith or Orson or Sanders Cummings? And if you put the arrest record of other SEC schools in your colum would it be any different. Betting Tenn and Fla and Ala and Clemson and SC , etc. would be all the same. Now Tech has had a recent athlete involved in shooting out of his car, another shoot and kill a young woman on the street, have had arrests for selling pot and rape, and OD of a baseball player, yet there is never anything about Tech having problems. And if I am not mistaken they are on probation for the second time in 4 years for Cheating and now lying about it. So why all the articles about Ga. Don’t think we have had any arrests for shooting guns, Rape, selling pot. But yes, a lot of arrests for drinking and speeding. Things all college kids do.
285exp
March 13th, 2012
4:25 pm
CasualObserver,
Since the arrest was made late at night, I rather doubt that the officer pulled them over because he saw a couple of black kids. In case you didn’t notice, spring break has been going on the past couple of weeks, and the road they were traveling is a popular route to the coast. I know this may be hard to believe, but the police tend to patrol that area a little more closely when they know that lots of college students are passing through. It is wise for the students to avoid doing anything to attract undue attention to themselves by driving carelessly, committing traffice violations, and drinking and smoking dope. It would also appear that Mr Smith should choose his traveling companions more carefully, that one is unlucky.
Montgomery
March 13th, 2012
4:26 pm
That’s done in leisurely hours…
Montgomery
March 13th, 2012
4:27 pm
Andrew…
Techfanimpersonating whoeverisontop
March 13th, 2012
4:33 pm
I have nothing going for Georgia Tech, so I’ll pretend to be Florida, Bama or whoever else happend to be on top so that I can take cheap shots at UGA. What fun!!!
nick saban
March 13th, 2012
4:46 pm
Smoking weed stunts your growth
headley lamar
March 13th, 2012
4:51 pm
Chip, Name on school in the SEC more strict than UGA
There isn’t one. UGA is the toughest school in the SEC and has one of the toughest drug policies in the Nation.
1eyedJack
March 13th, 2012
5:09 pm
If you’re going to smoke weed, maybe it’s a good idea to roll down the window.
T-Dawg
March 13th, 2012
5:11 pm
Why would anyone want to play on a team where you can’t count on your teammates to stay out of jail? On the other hand, I guess that’s one way to crack the playing rotation… Perhaps some second-team cb incited this behavior from Smith?
GTBob
March 13th, 2012
5:14 pm
There isn’t one. UGA is the toughest school in the SEC and has one of the toughest drug policies in the Nation.
They have to. They are one of the few teams with a drug problem.