This time last month, Kirby Smart and the Georgia Bulldogs were in full celebration mode. After all, they went full throttle on the recruiting trail. They landed their 14th in-state commitment in June. Reports suggest that it was the highest number of June commitments during Smart’s tenure. June also came with the commitment of Georgia four-star safety commit Chace Calicut. But who would have thought that it would make Smart regret the move?

On June 26, the Bulldogs gained the commitment from the North Shore (Texas) product. Smart might be on cloud nine then. After all, Calicut has been a highly sought-after safety. He held offers from Power Five programs like Michigan and Texas. 247Sports describes Calicut as a “huge and functionally athletic” recruit. But poor Smart! He now has to deal with the uglier side of Calicut.

Here came the shocking news for the Bulldogs fam on July 22. On3 tweeted, “Georgia commit Chace Calicut arrested, charged in violent driving incident, per @FOX26Houston.” Now what’s the hoopla all about? As reported by FOX 26 Houston, two Houston-area teens are accused of a violent driving incident involving two other teens they know from school. The names as reported are 17-year-old Calicut and 17-year-old Isaiah Brice Phillip. Smart’s 2026 commit has been charged with two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, a second-degree felony, following an incident that occurred on July 6. What happened exactly?

Reports state that on July 6, Smart’s defensive back commit drove around another vehicle and then slammed on the brakes. This forced the other vehicle to stop. Both of them are said to be acquaintances from their school. While the other driver tried to pull away, Calicut allegedly chased him and pulled alongside the driver again. As reports state, “The teen drove around Calicut’s car and tried to get away, but Calicut pulled up next to him again, court documents allege. Calicut was allegedly driving erratically in front of and alongside the teen, and the teen saw Phillip in Calicut’s car with a handgun pointed toward him.”

That’s when Phillip, who was in Smart’s commit’s car, allegedly pointed a handgun at the driver. Things escalated when Phillip fired gunshots at the driver of the other car when he tried to pull away from the scene. Now, when Smart pursued Calicut, he hardly knew that their victory over Texas and Michigan in this recruiting race would come at such a high cost. The Galena Park product was ranked as the No. 152 overall recruit in the 2026 cycle.

Now that Smart is putting together one of the best classes in the country, this might be a blot on their picture-perfect recruiting story. Meanwhile, this news might make Georgia fans scream ‘Enough is enough’.

A déjà vu moment for Kirby Smart

This time last year, Smart was going through the same situation. Georgia players were getting charged with one assault or the other. Last year, on July 26, Georgia wide receiver Rodarius “Rara” Thomas was arrested on multiple family violence charges. He was held in the Athens-Clarke County Jail after being charged with cruelty to children-family violence, a second-degree felony, and two misdemeanor counts of battery-family violence. Now, this was not the first time that Smart’s recruit got involved in anything of this sort.

Back in January 2023, he was arrested by the University of Georgia police. The arrest warrant, as obtained by ESPN, read, he allegedly confined and detained a person “without legal authority by standing in front of the dorm room door, blocking the exit, telling her she cannot leave.” But this time around, Smart had to do something. The Bulldogs’ head coach suspended Thomas indefinitely.

During the 2024 SEC Media Days, Kirby Smart made it very clear that he can’t compromise with the code of conduct of his squad. The coach said, “The incidents that we’ve had off the field are not something that we condone.” After all, arrests have been very common in Smart’s team.

As per the reports, at least 29 people, staff and players included, from the Athens camp, were involved in arrests related to reckless driving between January 2023 and July 2024. This landed Smart and the Bulldogs a brutal tag from the 24/7 College Sports Talk podcast host, Big Game Boomer. He said, “The Culture at Georgia is truly a joke.  This is disgusting.  Kirby Smart must be held accountable.” Now, will Chase Calicut undergo the same fate as Rodarius Thomas?