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Kirby Smart takes stand on Georgia football discipline, team chemistry at stake
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Posts: 10,479 admin
Kirby Smart takes stand on Georgia football discipline, team chemistry at stake
MIRAMAR BEACH — Georgia has obvious questions to address with well-documented off-season driving-related issues and key roster turnover.
Comments
If they didn’t embrace the previous education after the two deaths what makes the fans believe they’ll embrace it now?
Just because Kirby says it??
The best mistakes to learn from are other people’s. It is summed up well in the quote, “If you don’t learn from history, you are bound to repeat it.” It seems the players are not learning from history that includes two deaths, from the mistakes of their teammates, nor the education they are being provided. That leaves learning from their own mistakes and suffering the consequences and praying that they don’t harm themselves or others
I was the age of these players during the days of muscle cars. There wasn’t much better than popping the clutch and boiling the tires on a SS 396 Camaro and pegging out the speedometer. Luckily, I didn’t hurt or kill anyone and never got caught by the police. I’m certainly not in a position to cast stones.
If you drive through Atlanta on any given day you see the kind of mentality where people believe they are driving in a high speed video game, weaving in and out of traffic leaving zero room for error never thinking they could possibly wreck and kill somebody or they seriously just dont care. It's insane.Your first thought is they're nutts and are about to kill somebody.It's much much more reckless than anything I ever did or witnessed growing up, "back in the day.' Sober or not. muscle car or not. THis stuff is fueled by the Fast and Furious movies. Laying down a 30 yard path of rubber back in the day seems like child's play by way of comparison.
Kirby has promised these parents he will do all he can to protect their kids. That doesn’t mean that he isn’t living up to his end of the deal and the student athletes do listen. But just don’t always remember during certain situations. Its easy to say they are just young men still learning. But these 85+ Players have to realize they are part of the few who made it this far in a sport they love.
“more education things”
Huh??
“But it’s not just about that, it’s about everything that they can get into as far as gambling, drugs and alcohol and treatment of the opposite sex.”
What an odd way to end an article…unless you’re setting the table for a series or something.
As for the events of the past several months, I’ll say a couple of things;
1) Leading well over 100 “men” (aka, young boys clumsily navigating their way into manhood), and trying to keep them relatively humble while everybody—INCLUDING THE ONE TRYING TO LEAD THEM—is trying to convince them of their mortality, is **** near impossible.
2) The one leading them has every single resource on the planet—even if they aren’t utilizing all of them—and is compensated beyond belief…so so don’t really want to hear it.
I agree that we shouldn’t cast stones, as we all live in glass houses.
But don’t confuse accountability and expectations with “casting stones”.
Kids have been involved in this kind of crap...since the advent of the automobile and motorcycle. And, before that...it was horses and racing carriages. Lol
Colleges get in a new crop of "17-18 yr old kids" every single year. What do any of you, believe a Football Coach can do, to change the "thousands of years of ingrained instinct and behavior that drives a Young Man to challenge his courage & mortality". You can mitigate it...but, you can't stop it. That's impossible. If it was possible...Parents and Teachers would've done it a hundred years ago. Lol
Some call it "sowing oats" or "feeling your oats". If it's not cars...it's something else. Preferably legal...but, NEVER safe. "Safe" defeats the purpose of the behavior (i.e., surfing, skydiving, skiing, etc.).
"Top Tier Athletes" are far more driven by this mindset than the average kid. It's what makes them "great". The Dawgs get more than their share of Top-Tier Athletes, so, they're far more likely to have these types of issues.
That's just my opinion. Go get em Big Red.
Agree 100%, but unfortunately as I remember from when I was younger and with my own personal experiences with my own kids reality is different. An unfortunate truth on so many things (especially younger in life) is personal experience is the “lasting” teacher not necessarily the best. We keep educating though because even if you get through to one that can save lives.
@BigDawg61 I have served in all three capacities, (parent, teacher, coach) so I have a basic understanding. You compare the three, but it’s a bit of an “apples and oranges” comparison. Parents have to deal with grotesque amounts of familiarity, and teachers don’t have the same relationship (commonalities).
CFB (much less SEC) coaches only have to deal with the awkward transition between boyhood and “adulthood”, as well as the arduous task of deprogramming what the well-meaning hometown folks have ingrained in their entire psyche. But they have superior amounts of leverage: 1) playing time, 2) NIL, 3) the NFL, etc, etc. These young men very clearly see the writing on the wall, which mitigates the workload significantly.
I realize there are as many differences, as there are similarities, between the Parent, Coach & Teacher....but, those are the "tent-poles" of a Student-Athlete's upbringing and education. I guess you could throw Priest or Reverend in there, as well. It's where kids get their values and morals. Where they get their sense of "right & wrong".
Where I wanted my "point" to go wasn't so much to that aspect of the "speeding/racing" issue...but, more, to the "masculine instinct of the homo sapien". You can't change that with any amount of "words & advice".
All you can do, is "educate and advise" before the act or "punish & restrict" after the fact. It's up to the individual, which road to take. Their "upbringing and education" facilitate the type of decision...if you want to call it that...that they make. "Conservative & Safe" or 'Risky & Exciting".
What I was trying to get across, was that football players that live in the upper 10 percentile are more apt to carry that particular genetic trait...to "push the edge of the envelope", so to speak. It's what drives them to "Be the Best". IMO
"But these 85+ Players have to realize they are part of the few who made it this far in a sport they love."....spot on Brooksie, and I'll add these players are now confronted with the major foundational component of the DAWG Culture...Expectation. No one meets it all at once, it is a daily process. Small steps forward, one step at a time, and sometimes you fall off the line, you fall behind. The most important aspect of personal development is failure realization. One reason these 85 were offered was the fact that they had already demonstrated a never give up attitude.....The DAWG culture demands that each player accept that failure is not defeat but a golden opportunity to learn and excel. TEAM is the realization that you have brothers, coaches, parents, administrators, students that hold the highest expectation for you as an individual. It will always be next man up, next play, next game. Its the daily process that makes champions.......GOOOO DAWGS, SICEM!
Well said. Good post..."it boils the Cane juice into syrup". Lol
You used the right word: "mortality." At that age, I (along with most/all my buddies) thought I was basically immortal. Nothing could stop us. Never gonna die ... 100% luck that I didn't screw up my life on a couple of occasions. As a father with a son at college, all you can do is stay close and try to break that mindset whenever you get a chance. And hope 1% of what you tell your kid gets absorbed. Keep at it, Kirby.
The first couple of years in college I did some **** things! Looking back I wonder how I lived through it. By my Junior year I was a little more mature and avoided situations where I might get in trouble. So I understand these young men "sowing their oats". These are life lessons. We've all been there and done that.
I think the driving incidents are way overblown. I'm not approving anything, but I can't see how that stuff affects team chemistry.
Well spoken! Some kids will get into trouble occasionally, whether away at college, with friends, or home WITH the parents. Mistakes are common in any age group, the question is..how do I keep from repeating that same mistake again? It's a part of life, living, and learning.