Now-suspended Georgia football star NiTareon ‘Nitro’ Tuggle was ‘driving 107 miles per hour’ when he was arrested by local police last week, leading to his current banishment from the Bulldogs.
Tuggle was reportedly driving 42 mph over the speed limit on Georgia State Route 10 Loop when a policeman’s radar caught him speeding.
Tuggle was driving a 2021 Dodger Charger with his girlfriend in the car at the time of his arrest, per a police report obtained by ESPN.
The report states that Tuggle stopped his car in the right lane of the road, not the shoulder, when being pulled over by police with other cars around him.
‘I instructed Tuggle to exit the vehicle, at which point he nearly exited without placing the vehicle in park,’ the report stated. ‘Due to his reckless disregard for the safety of others – including himself, his passenger, other motorists, and myself – by operating the vehicle at a speed 42 mph over the limit and exceeding triple-digit speeds, I placed him under arrest.’
Tuggle was one of a pair of Georgia football stars suspended indefinitely by head coach Kirby Smart on Thursday, alongside Marques Easley.
NiTareon ‘Nitro’ Tuggle was ‘driving 107 miles per hour’ when he was arrested by local police
Both Tuggle and Marques Easley were suspended by head coach Kirby Smart indefinitely
Tuggle was charged with reckless driving and speeding. Easley and Tuggle are the latest players within the program to be arrested for driving-related incidents.
Between January 2023 and July 2024, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution revealed that players within the Georgia football program were involved in 24 driving-related incidents. Multiple arrests, including these two, have happened since the publishing of that report.
A microscope has been placed on the program ever since the deaths of lineman Devin Willock and recruiting analyst Chandler LeCroy the night after the Bulldogs were celebrating winning the national championship for the 2022 season.
Georgia head coach Kirby Smart has previously maintained that he and his colleagues are working to solve this problem, but last year rejected the idea that different team policies could have prevented the fatalities.
‘No policy or lack thereof policy caused this accident,’ Smart told the Banner-Herald in 2023 – in reaction to a different driving incident involving one of his players.
Easley only appeared in two games as a freshman for the Bulldogs with one of the deepest rosters in college football.
