Is UGA RB Trevor Etienne Going to Play vs. Clemson or Not?

okay just wrapping up Kirby's First Press Conference of the regular season obviously we had a lot of these and this was the topic that we all knew was GNA come up Kirby knew it was gonna come up is Trevor TI gonna play against Clemson and um I'll have the clips up later today but from Kirby himself but the quote was I really don't so stick with me on the quote here because sometimes reporters ask questions uh he there are multiple questions all at once he says I really don't talk about the other stuff talking about possible suspensions of Georgia players and he said we won't discuss those when he was very specifically asked if Georgia had made a decision about if Trevor etn had would would play so for those of you who are unaware of this situation etn transferred to Georgia in the spring in the winter of 2024 from Florida where he had uh racked up 750 yards for the Gators with eight touchdowns and then in March he was suspend he was arrested for a DUI uh is a DUI alcohol less safe reckless driving failure to maintain Lane and proper slash and proper driving on a road of fixing materials that reduceed visibility of Windows when she so he had U you know he had tents on his windows the charges for the DUI were dropped um which means that then he was able to play um in theory according to University of Georgia policy athletic department policy um one thing that that kby said in the spring was um as we all know kids sometimes don't make the best decisions the older you get sometimes the tougher the consequences are for your mistakes he's not going to let this mistake Define him he's embarrassed he's upset he knows he made a mistake it's a treat Treach teaching moment I hope he gets better from it and he talked about how uh you know he was going to let the legal process play out before discip announcing discipline well you know there there's going to be no announcement so that that was something he said six months ago but there won't be an announcement because he's not announcing it Kirby you know he's he's he just will not comment on it which is his prerogative whatever um he said this last week about or excuse me yeah this was last week he said Trevor is the leader of the room talking about the running backs he's un he understands things and really does a good job of setting the tempo and the standard we're looking forward to getting all those guys ready to go so look he won't comment on it which leads to speculation and you know that's that's what it is I mean it's not good or bad U my suspicion is that he will play uh but the longer we go without him you know without any declarative statement from Georgia the more I suspect that he won't uh I know that's a double-edged thing but that's probably what they're wanting you know Clemson to have to deal with is not the not knowing part um but but again my suspicion um is that he my suspicion as he is a will play I've talked about this after a lot of after a lot of the discussion surrounding this earlier this camp and stick with me on it and I'll tell you what's going to happen if he doesn't play but you know if he got a DUI obviously he would not be playing he does not have a DUI on his record the charges were dropped so I don't you know there's no rationale in terms of the bylaws that would keep him from playing if it's a team decision it's a Kirby Smart decision that's a different conversation and um you know I don't know which it is I I can't well it's got to be a team decision because um there's nothing keeping him from playing because you'd Miss 10 the traditional uh suspension is 10% of your season Mark Rick used to round up so that'd be two games um for 1. two round that's a heck of a Roundup by the way but um you know that's that's not necessarily been the case here now Kirby would tell you and he has told us there's been guys that have been suspended at Georgia for just traffic violations not even DUI so he's Kirby's point is people are well this is my statement about it and and Kirby can correct it if he wants to I mean he he chooses not to so that's fine but you know I think Kirby's saying people are really going after us about this driving stuff but they don't they don't always know everything that's going on for instance most of the people I think are suspecting that he will be suspended because he got a the UI but I have to say again if someone has charges dropped that means there wasn't enough to prosecute that person okay and so it would be like you know putting sending someone giving someone punishment for something that something couldn't could not be proven um now that's not the same thing as the team stuff I think it's completely possible that etn does not play in the first half or the first quarter and then comes in and plays I think that uh there's there's reasons to to think that that is possible because of him um you know trying you know at least you're trying to set send a a signal to your team uh Marcus rosem Jack Saint which I was trying to spit out a second ago Marcus Ros Jack Saint was suspended g a year ago U for some driving stuff that was not a DUI so um you know I I think that's where we're at but my suspicion is he'll play that's not my reporting I don't know no one knows and uh um I think the guys I mean I think etn knows I think maybe maybe the guys on the team know they might not you know um but these run this running back room at a minimum is going to be throwing some guys at you now if etn does not play in this game you also have Roger Robinson out so that's all of a sudden you go from you know legitimately six deep at running back something like that to four okay seven to five whatever it may be you know there's been a lot of discussion about Nate Fraser this summer uh obviously there's been a live discussion of Branson Robinson there's two guys named Robinson no relation that play running back at Georgia same class if I'm not mistaken sometimes I get confus with that rodri is a so Branson was a they might not be the same class now because of rodri not excuse me because of Branson not playing this past season but they're both younger guys uh rodri is going into his junior year I think I don't know they've not been there long so um Georgia is going to throw running backs at Clemson left and right whether it's you know just Frasier and um Branson Robinson or it's those guys Dwight Phillips Jr I mean like they're they've got a lot of guys cash Jones Etc that they're going to that have been successful playing in the SEC like these are not well cash Jones has certainly uh Branson Robinson scored touchdowns I think plural in a national championship game so it's not like they're without without guys you would prefer to have etn play you know in this game but cary's not going to talk about and that that's fine but um you know from my perspective what this does is it creates you know if I were Kirby in Georgia they're they are trying to get an advantage and I understand that there's there's no question about that by the way make sure you're signing up for our newsletter the link is down below that's the only ask I have of you during this video make sure you're signing up for that um and don't miss out on all this news this stuff gets emailed out for free to your inbox every single day you don't have to deal with the sewage of social media if you don't want to um but you know in doing this is from my perspective by not answering the question it makes it a bigger deal than it is you're getting a coaching Advantage Advantage a competitive Advantage I guess but in a way it's reliving this uh entire episode every single you know every single press conference you know I don't think people are going to ask about it tomorrow but he probably will get asked on Wednesday then he'll get asked by the television people on Friday um and so that's just what it is I mean you know you've got a really good group of people that cover Georgia if you want to call it covering but you know ABC Shawn McDon uh that's kind that that the news will leak out one way or the other it always does and um and uh you know your television partner paying you money you know ABC Disney's not covering the SEC they're not they're not this is not these guys are not journalists they're they I don't mean that derogatorily if that's even a word I don't mean that in a derogatory way um they just they're not reporters um they're they are broadcasters and not all broadcasters are journalists it's not the same it's not necessarily the same thing so uh they don't you know they may feel like they have a right to know cuz paying you this money um you know we don't have to be holding to you know any of these rules and then Kirby doesn't have to tell them either so there's all of that at once but we'll just see um again this is not Insider stuffed I don't know the answer I'm just speculating on that front but I think when you do this and you don't answer like this could have been answered a week ago or whenever it was dropped I can't remember when they were dropped they were dropped in July so this has been in a month and oh wait a second now this has been um some time now that uh that this has been going on it could have been you know he could have talked about this the first day of of fall camp and it not be a story anymore but it's going to be a story of the rest of the week um and you know that's again I'm not passing judgment on I'm just saying what it is and if they're comfortable with with it being out there all the time then they're comfortable with it being out there all the time that's fine but but um my suspicion is he will play but we'll know soon enough I mean you know that game's a noon kickoff we'll be inside the Dome at 9 probably 9:15 something like that Georgia will get there at probably 9:45 or 10 o'clock and then from that stage forward you know you know if he's going through warm-ups you know he very well may play doesn't mean he will if he's not going through warm-ups at all then obviously he's not going to play so they would need his help um the line on the game just doesn't seem to be moving so that means that people in Las Vegas either don't care don't know or it or know and it just doesn't matter so my suspicion is they don't know yet but um you know this this line you know I follow the lines pretty closely um as we get into a season because I'm a complete you know uh degenerate but um you know the line has not really moved in an appreciable way it's um like I don't really I have to say I'm not I don't mean this but I don't I don't really trust ESPN bet I I what I mean by that is like the line it's higher it's 14 but like based on like why um everybody else except one other Outlet is at 13 and a half so I you know you got MGM and like you know FanDuel DraftKings B all these guys Hard Rock everybody's sitting that you know 13 and a half and the the game is just hardly moved at all so I don't you know I don't think there's any real data out there about this in any way but we'll just see and and um you know usually these lines they move like hard on Sundays and they kind of trickle a little bit during the week they may go up a little bit like a like two points would be a lot and then on sometimes on Thursday Friday Saturday right before games Lions can can move quick because the betting public the people who are really doing this to pay for their their house and so forth they're going to want to see what they can get at the end um if it's you know or just sit out you know they don't have to take a look at it but 13 and a half man I mean like this Georgia losing this game no matter if Trevor etn plays or not would be akin to Vanderbilt beating um West uh beating Virginia Tech and that's a home game for Vanderbilt so there's not a lot of um there's there's there's just it's G this is a tough ask for Clemson you know right now like if I were to tell you I'm just looking for some other comparable games um you know like do you really think North Dakota State's going to beat Colorado I I don't I think it could be halfway competitive Georgia's Georgia's favored over Clemson by more than Colorado is over North Dakota State I mean like it it's a significant line 13 and a half there's just not like Michigan state would be beat by by Florida Atlantic that would be strange um you know when you look at Georgia Clemson and and these two teams being ranked that high and the line being that wide there's a lot of respect for Georgia out there right now um and like South Dakota state line with Oklahoma state is closer than Georgia Clemson um you know there's a lot of real respect out there for Georgia I think the explosion is the part that I would be concerned about if I if I'm um you Clemson George's explosion uh you know Branson Robinson is not etn that's not the style that he played Nate Frasier could be though you know I know Dwight I I can tell you right now I know what Dwight Phillips is like and that that that is some serious straight line speed um and I you know I've seen him play when he was at Pebblebrook it is legit you know all he needs is a little space and he he's straight up out of there but this line you know it's a big big line I mean it's a big old line like so but I my suspicion is he will play but I could be completely but but I'm being you know completely uh transparent here I don't know we don't know at dog post it will trickle out though that it always does thanks for watching