Kirby Smart noncommittal on status of Georgia's Julian Rochester, Chad Clay

ATHENS -- Noticeably missing from Georgia's practice Tuesday, the penultimate one before G-Day, were early enrollees Julian Rochester and Chad Clay.

The reason was obvious, given that both players were arrested early Tuesday morning on two felony counts related to possession of a BB gun on campus and property damage.

Noticeably missing after practice was any kind of commitment from Georgia head coach Kirby Smart, as he side-stepped questions regarding the incident.

"When you make poor decisions, you have to suffer the consequences," Smart said. "I'm extremely disappointed in Julian and Chad, both as we expect our student athletes to comply with the policies of the university and our football program.

"At this time, we're still gathering information. They will be disciplined in an appropriate manner. Any other decisions will be made at the appropriate time. There's a lot of information gathering that's still going on, so I'm sure you'll have a lot of questions that I won't be able to answer at this point or can't comment on at this point, at some of the issues."

The most obvious instance of side-stepping by Smart came when he was asked whether he was made aware of the incident when UGA police served the search warrant April 7 or whether he found out Tuesday morning after the arrests were made.

"I can't comment until I get a lot more information on it," Smart said. "Can't go there."

The situation marks the third and fourth arrests since Smart was announced as head coach, although the marijuana-related arrest of Chauncey Rivers occurred while Smart was still the defensive coordinator of Alabama.

Unlike that incident or the arrest of sophomore Jonathan Ledbetter, which was related to underage drinking and possession of a fake ID, this incident does not have explicit guidelines for punishment, meaning that there isn't a set suspension associated with the arrests.

"We're not making any rash, run off into making a quick decisions," Smart said. "We've got to see this whole thing through, find everything out, talk to them, get with them and visit with them, so we can't say that yet. Where it was clear-cut on Ledbetter's deal, it's not as clear cut."

Kim Stephens, Clay and Rochester's lawyer, said that he thinks the damage isn't substantial and that the charges will be dismissed. Regardless, possessing a weapon is in direct violation of the UGA Student Code of Conduct, meaning both will be subject to a conduct hearing where sanctions still could be dealt.

In the interim, Smart said that he thinks that both players could be back at practice Thursday, and that their absence from practice Tuesday was more related to getting their academic situation handled after missing morning classes before they posted bail.

"(Tuesday), they had some academic things, obviously they missed this morning so we wanted them to go take care of their academic responsibilities and they missed some classes earlier (Tuesday)," Smart said. "I think they made it to their noon classes but they didn't make it to the morning classes, and we wanted both of them to catch up academically and get that area right."

Both players' statuses for G-Day, however, are still up in the air as Smart continues to receive information.

"I don't know that yet," Smart said. "I can't answer."

This story was originally published April 12, 2016 at 8:55 PM with the headline "Kirby Smart noncommittal on status of Georgia's Julian Rochester, Chad Clay ."