No, Kirby Smart, Tonka Hemingway did not call out the ‘Dawgs

A controversy has been brewing this week between Georgia head coach Kirby Smart and a defensive lineman at another SEC school.

At SEC Media Days in July, a reporter asked South Carolina football player Tonka Hemingway to name some of the loudest venues he’s played in as a visitor during his career. After thinking for a moment, the Gamecock defensive tackle said that he thought Tennessee’s Neyland Stadium and Texas A&M’s Kyle Field were the first two that came to mind.

You can watch Hemingway’s media availability below. The question is asked around the 6:00 mark of the video.

For reasons unknown, earlier this week, a reporter asked Georgia head coach Kirby Smart about Hemingway’s comments (which, by the way, came just two minutes after complimenting the fans from both South Carolina and Georiga with how much they seem to care about the border rivalry).

The question and Smart’s response begin close to the 14:30 mark of the video below.

Smart’s response was head-scratching. In a comment in which the Georgia Bulldogs were not even mentioned, the head coach in Athens quipped, “It sounds like Tonka called [Georgia fans] out.” He went on to say that he expected Bulldog fans to be motivated to be loud on Saturday since Hemingway “spurned” them.

To be clear, Tonka Hemingway did not call out the Georgia Bulldog fans or “spurn” anyone, just as he did not call out the fans from any of the other SEC schools that he didn’t mention. Or Clemson fans. Or any other fans he’s played in front of on the road. He complimented Tennessee and Texas A&M.

In recent years, even as Georgia has become the most dominant force in college football, Smart has resorted to gimmicky motivational ploys about people doubting his Bulldogs. Last season, Georgia defender Nolan Smith told reporters that they were expected to go 7-5 before their undefeated run to a second national championship.

Smart later made light of the comment after it was revealed the Bulldogs made up the slight. Smart said he would need to be “checked into a psychiatric ward” if he thought that his team would go 7-5, but he did not deny that he used the (obviously) fake quote as motivation for his team.

Frankly, as cheesy and Dabo Swinney-like as that might seem to be, the majority of coaches in college football use those kinds of cheap “bulletin board material” quotes (whether legitimate or fabricated) to light a fire under their teams. So, in a sense, that is to be expected.

However, where Kirby erred in his comments was in his disingenuous assertion that Tonka Hemingway called out Georgia fans and in the way he mentioned the young man by name. It is not accurate or fair for Smart to direct the ire of the Bulldog Faithful on an opposing player simply for complimenting other programs and their fans.

Kirby Smart and the Bulldogs can make up false headlines like “they think we’re going 7-5!” if they want to do so (it’s worked for the aforementioned Swinney at Clemson, it’s worked for Nick Saban’s Alabama Crimson Tide, and it’s even working for Deion Sanders and Colorado), but they can’t make up headlines and attribute them to a real person. That’s wrong.

Tonka Hemingway is a classy young man who has had positive things to say about Georgia and their fans for years as a member of the South Carolina football team. For, arguably, the best coach and team in the country, this was unnecessary and below the belt. The Bulldogs are heavy favorites this weekend against the Gamecocks, and the manufactured motivation likely wasn’t needed, especially at the expense of a college kid who did nothing wrong.