Georgia coach Kirby Smart recognized a potential sinkhole for the program in the aftermath of Bulldogs' 65-7 domination of TCU in the College Football Playoff championship game on Jan. 9.
"The disease that creeps into your program is called entitlement," Smart said. "I've seen it firsthand, If you can stomp it out with leadership, then you can stay hungry."
Georgia will not have a chance to show if that is an issue on the field until the opener against Tennessee-Martin on Sept. 2. The Bulldogs have won consecutive national championships and are 33-1 since a loss to Florida on Nov. 7, 2020. Smart has built a five-star machine that is more feared – at least heading into the 2023 season – than the one his mentor Nick Saban has at Alabama.
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Yet Smart is dealing with a symptom of a problem that can tear a program apart. A series of off-the-field arrests – and how Smart handles those issues – will define where the program goes and the perception of the dynasty in the future.
"The threat for us is complacency," Smart said at SEC Media Days on Tuesday. "If you acknowledge that complacency is a threat, that's the first step to stomping it out."
Defensive tackle Jalen Carter – now with the Philadelphia Eagles – was charged with street racing in a Jan. 15 car crash. Offensive lineman Devin Wilcox and staffer Chandler LeCroy were killed in the accident.
"A tragedy can either divide or unite us," Smart said. "I'm proud of our players. It has definitely brought us closer together and has united our team and our family."
It has not stopped the off-the-field arrests. Three notable players have been arrested since that tragedy.
May 23: Marcus Rosemy-Jacksaint was arrested and charged with reckless driving and speeding. Both were misdemeanor charges.
May 9: De'Nylon Morrisette was arrested and charged with four misdemeanors, including driving under the influence of drugs.
Feb. 22: Jamon Dumas-Johnson - a SN first-team All-American in 2022 – was arrested on misdemeanor charges of racing on highway/streets and reckless driving, according to Athens-Clarke County jail booking records.
Smart said he is "disappointed any time we have traffic incidents" and expressed concern for player safety.
"I'm also smart enough to understand and know that 18- to 20-year olds is when this happens," Smart said. "It's when it happened to me as a student-athlete. That's when speeding happens. What we want to do is take that out and make it safe and not have high speeds."
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Entitlement and complacency are not problems on the field. It's off it, and Smart has yet to use the most-effective means of addressing it. Suspend players in some fashion – even for misdemeanor driving offenses. Take away playing time. Is that not the best way to guard against entitlement?
According to On3.com, Georgia has 19 players with a player rating of 90 or better, which is two more than Alabama. The Bulldogs have sent 25 players to the NFL Draft the last two seasons, but the offseason talk continues to be on the driving-related arrests.
We have seen this before in the SEC. In fact, we'll see the Netflix documentary on Aug. 23. Florida won two national championships in three years under Urban Meyer in 2006 and 2008. But in 2009, the Gators slipped to 8-5 and Meyer left because of health concerns.
What do you remember more about that Florida team? It's equal parts the 66 wins and Tim Tebow speech and 31 player arrests, which included Aaron Hernandez.
Don't think that can happen at Georgia? It's not to that level yet off the field, but there are similarities. For Smart it is about finding the right message. For fans and prognosticators, it is the Bulldogs' opportunity to become the first team to three-peat since Minnesota in 1934-36; something Nebraska (1994-95), USC (2004-05) and Alabama (2009-10) could not do after winning back-to-back national titles in the AP Poll era.
That is not the right chord for 18-22 year olds in the locker room.
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"No offense to the Minnesota 1935 team, but I don't know if it's gonna resonate with my audience," Smart said. "We're going to try to – and I don't care about the three-peat, the two-peat or the one-peat. I care about complacency."
That comes with leadership – and Georgia show-cased the front-line players for that in Nashville. That starts with tight end Brock Bowers, a quiet superstar who is among those Bulldogs next in line to be a first-round pick in the 2024 NFL Draft. Center Sedrick Van Pran and defensive back Kamari Lassiter also repeated the message Smart is drilling into the players: "Better never rests."
"Coming off two National Championships, we are trying to stay hungry and be the best we can be every single day," Bowers said. "Actually I think we've been doing a pretty good job of that and we just have to keep it going throughout fall camp and the end of the season."
Smart agreed with that assessment in an interview with Sirius XM.
Kirby Smart on the culture at Georgia:
— College Sports on SiriusXM (@SXMCollege) July 18, 2023
"You don't usually have guys that want to stay when you have bad culture or you have bad kids. That's not part of what our program is."#SECMD23 | @GeorgiaFootball | @KirbySmartUGA pic.twitter.com/tbT5NuXiyO
"You don't usually have guys that want to stay when you have bad culture or you have bad kids," Smart said. "That's not part of what our program is. Actions speak louder than words."
They do indeed. Now is the time for Smart to prove it with his.
