Kirby Smart sat down with Mark Schlabach of ESPN in his first interview since the fatal accident on January 15th. The full article is here and you can watch the interview below.
Kirby said when the Emergency Room doctor told him of the passing of Devin Willock and Chandler Lecroy it was “one of the most painful experiences of my life.”
Kirby was asked if there was anything he would change about boundaries between players and staff. He said, “No policy that we have caused this accident. It was a very unfortunate, tragic accident.”
When asked about street racing being a problem, KIrby said they had a team meeting this summer where they brought in Athens PD to talk about the issue with the team. And ultimately “the person behind the wheel makes the decision.”
When asked if Georgia has a culture problem, Kirby responded:
“Absolutely not. I would say we’re far from it. When you talk to people outside our program that come into it, they talk about what a great culture we do have — and we do an incredible job. Because I’ve got a lot of outside entities that come into our program and pour into these young men.”
“Do we have perfect young men and women and players? Not necessarily. But I promise you this, that’s the intent: for us to grow these guys and get them better. And I feel really good about the culture within our program.”
He said Georgia will continue to cooperate fully with authorities.