Has anybody heard from Herbie?

I was gonna go there, but according to Seth Emerson ($$), it sounds like others have already beaten me to the punch.

Smart is far from the first coach to deal with this. Mark Richt did. Nick Saban did and still does. Steve Spurrier did. But Smart is going through it now, and this gives outsiders a chance to question the player leadership on the team, the overall discipline of the program, or just ammunition to tweak the meme to “Kirby Smart has lost control.” (Plenty are already doing that.)

(For yuks, here’s a particularly irate version of that from an outsider.  But I digress.)

For what it’s worth, it sounds like Kirby is taking this personally.

So what is a head coach to do? Smart was asked exactly that Tuesday and indicated that harsher punishments may be necessary. He called playing at Georgia a “privilege,” and one that could be revoked.

“I’ll be honest with you, I think sometimes you don’t realize it until the privilege is lost. Sometimes it takes a catastrophic event to change your course,” Smart said. “And when I’m talking a catastrophic event that is losing your privilege of being here. That’s unfortunate. But we’re going to follow the rules and policies on these guys and move forward.”

“Losing your privilege” sounds like a serious threat, potentially at least.  And as Seth goes on to note, if you really want to make an example of someone, outside linebacker, where Georgia is loaded, is a convenient place to make one.  Perhaps that point is already seeping through some thicker skulls, as Brenton Cox had the good sense to delete his dumbass tweet from yesterday.

That being said, it’s not like Mark Richt didn’t dismiss a few miscreants from the team.  A lot of good that did his meme.  Best of luck going forward with this, Kirbs.

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UPDATE:  Hell, I forgot to mention that Smart did a little gallows humor yesterday.  You guys know I love gallows humor.

Two more Georgia football players were arrested on Tuesday, adding to a growing list on the team running afoul of the law this spring.

So when coach Kirby Smart was asked 12 minutes into his postpractice press conference where his team had gotten better this spring, he said bluntly: “Well, it ain’t off the field I can promise you that.”

In case you can’t tell, he’s pissed.