Josh Petty pleads guilty

[Vespidie]

The 91 mph to me depends on where it is. If it's on an open stretch of limited-access highway, although fast, that's not as big a deal as if it's on a country road or somewhere there is traffic coming across or in from side streets. I have no idea where it was or the circumstances, nor am I suggesting it's not a big deal. Living in Illinois, the whole drug stuff is just not that important to me anymore. If he were impaired, whole different story. No one got hurt, and hopefully, he learns from this. Seems like there may have been an overzealous officer involved with 7 felonies charged being reduced to 2 misdemeanors. Then again, if he had a clean record, the judge would probably be pretty lenient the first time. There might be more to the story.

Oconee County...Hwy 316 (Hwy to Hell/Athens) according to the crack reporters at the AJC.

 

[forensicbuzz]

From the AJC article. This is just the part of the article about the speeding and location.

According to a court document, the 18-year-old was driving 91 mph on Highway 316 near Jimmy Daniel Road in Oconee County, just outside of Athens, when he was pulled over between 9:10-11:19 p.m.

He pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of 88 mph in a 65 mph zone.

Kind of weird to drop to 88 mph. Over 85 in a 65 is a super-speeder ticket (+$200) and can include a reckless driving charge. There shouldn't be a difference between 91 and 88. 91 is a 65 is easy, depending on the vehicle, especially at 18. Under-developed frontal cortex...sigh. I wonder if there were others in the car that the drugs may have belonged to. Typically, if there are drugs in the car, there's going to be a possession charge, not just a paraphernalia charge.

 

[IslandsofGaunilo]

Yikes. If I were Key, I would have dismissed him from the program. NIL deal be damned. This is unacceptable and the kind of conduct we (rightfully) condemn UGA for tolerating.

ETA: it is the narcotics plus the speeding. The two by themselves warrant a suspension, but, together, it's worthy of dismissal.

 

[forensicbuzz]

Yikes. If I were Key, I would have dismissed him from the program. NIL deal be damned. This is unacceptable and the kind of conduct we (rightfully) condemn UGA for tolerating.

Wow! Kind of a weird knee-jerk reaction from someone who knows absolutely nothing about the actual facts associated with the incident. I hope you don't have kids. No one's tolerating unacceptable behavior. Seems he's being disciplined.

 

[IslandsofGaunilo]

Wow! Kind of a weird knee-jerk reaction from someone who knows absolutely nothing about the actual facts associated with the incident. I hope you don't have kids. No one's tolerating unacceptable behavior. Seems he's being disciplined.

I don’t think this is a knee-jerk take at all. Petty came in with a significant NIL deal, unprecedented for us, and that puts him in a different position than a mere child or student athlete of old. Petty is a de facto professional representative of GT. Higher scrutiny naturally comes with that. I'd hope, at the minimum, this has repercussions for the NIL deal and that there's a suspension of some kind. If we are just going to play the same game as UGA, then count me out.

 

[cpf2001]

Speeding with possession of a drug or “drug related object” is very different than driving impaired, so if those are the facts then “hasn’t played since” seems like adequate dealing with it internally.

Now learn from it and don’t do it again. Even if all you learn from it is to keep the speed down a touch and that cops can be hardasses about weed so you need to be careful when moving it around (assuming not something harder based on the ability to plea down).

 

[BainbridgeJacket]

Does this mean we can move him to DL?

 

[Northeast Stinger]

This kind of explains a lot for those of us who were wondering why we’ve heard zero about him.

 

[Darthdad]

Wow! Kind of a weird knee-jerk reaction from someone who knows absolutely nothing about the actual facts associated with the incident. I hope you don't have kids. No one's tolerating unacceptable behavior. Seems he's being disciplined.

I'd like to know what the 7 felonies were and the rationale for dropping them to 2 misdemeanors. Was it an illegal search? Did something get field tested as a drug (hence a felony) but then turn out to be legal material (and thus dropped entirely)? What's the deal?

Just what is the discipline being administered? Not playing? Sorry, but that's weak sauce in the way of discipline.

 

[GaTech4ever]

I'd like to know what the 7 felonies were and the rationale for dropping them to 2 misdemeanors. Was it an illegal search? Did something get field tested as a drug (hence a felony) but then turn out to be legal material (and thus dropped entirely)? What's the deal?

Just what is the discipline being administered? Not playing? Sorry, but that's weak sauce in the way of discipline.

It’s probably because of the fact that it’s concentrated THC (i.e. wax) inside of a vape pen. One .5 gram cartridge that’s $20 gets treated like it’s a significant quantity of marijuana. It’s a weird grey area that definitely benefits the law.

The thing is, people travel everywhere with these things. Even on planes. Because you can’t tell by looking at it whether it’s a THC vape pen or a tobacco vape pen. Which makes me think his car smelled and/or he was acting nervous and consented to a search.

Honestly, it’s dumb because of the act itself. But it’s almost just as dumb that he got caught because it’s so easy to hide. He literally must have been waving the pen to the cop.

 

[forensicbuzz]

I don’t think this is a knee-jerk take at all. Petty came in with a significant NIL deal, unprecedented for us, and that puts him in a different position than a mere child or student athlete of old. Petty is a de facto professional representative of GT. Higher scrutiny naturally comes with that. I'd hope, at the minimum, this has repercussions for the NIL deal and that there's a suspension of some kind. If we are just going to play the same game as UGA, then count me out.

You know zero facts about what actually happened. Very knee-jerk reaction.

I'm not saying that what happened couldn't have been at the level warranting moving on, but from the limited information in the article, I'm not seeing any basis for kicking the kid to the curb. I also don't see any correlation to what has been going on in Athens. Doesn't seem that he was racing or driving erratically. We know absolutely nothing about what the felony charges that were dropped were, nor the basis for the charges or their being dropped.

 

[Dinner_Jacket]

With all these “kids” making adult money; it’s a miracle we don’t hear of more incidents like this. The fact this happened in Athens on October 18 and it just now came out is also a miracle!

 

[Jacket20]

The 91 mph to me depends on where it is. If it's on an open stretch of limited-access highway, although fast, that's not as big a deal as if it's on a country road or somewhere there is traffic coming across or in from side streets. I have no idea where it was or the circumstances, nor am I suggesting it's not a big deal. Living in Illinois, the whole drug stuff is just not that important to me anymore. If he were impaired, whole different story. No one got hurt, and hopefully, he learns from this. Seems like there may have been an overzealous officer involved with 7 felonies charged being reduced to 2 misdemeanors. Then again, if he had a clean record, the judge would probably be pretty lenient the first time. There might be more to the story.

This is pretty close to my house. This is a four lane hwy and a very rural part of Hwy 316 outside of Athens. Very easy place to drive 80 plus.

 

[yeti92]

He's taking the approach of "If you want to beat the dwags, you've got to be able to think like a dwag."

 

[yeti92]

Yikes. If I were Key, I would have dismissed him from the program. NIL deal be damned. This is unacceptable and the kind of conduct we (rightfully) condemn UGA for tolerating.

ETA: it is the narcotics plus the speeding. The two by themselves warrant a suspension, but, together, it's worthy of dismissal.

It's a weed pen. Weed is decriminalized in Atlanta and Athens, just a fine and most the time not even that. Sounds like he just got stopped in between the two for speeding and had an overzealous cop try to hit him with as many things as he could try.

This may come as a surprise to you, but lots of Georgia Tech football players have smoked weed over the years, probably the majority even in the last 25 years. They just didn't always get caught.

 

[Techster]

I'd like to know what the 7 felonies were and the rationale for dropping them to 2 misdemeanors. Was it an illegal search? Did something get field tested as a drug (hence a felony) but then turn out to be legal material (and thus dropped entirely)? What's the deal?

Just what is the discipline being administered? Not playing? Sorry, but that's weak sauce in the way of discipline.

Most likely, GT (or a powerful donor) pulled some strings. Probably, someone associated with GT put in a call to the local DA, who is a friend, to get charges reduced. Petty probably has a clean criminal and driving record, and he didn't crash or kill anyone so the local DA was willing to reduce charges if Petty pleaded guilty. He's probably going to do a lot of community work, and he will probably get the book thrown at him if he F's up again.

For every arrest you read in the papers, there's probably like 10 other instances that never make headlines. I think Key is pretty good at keeping his players accountable. I'm sure Petty's discipline will be more than just not playing...us fans just won't hear about it.

 

[GTHomer]

He did play in the NC State game. I recall seeing him in the huddle during a timeout. He also appears on the Participation Report:

https://ramblinwreck.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/42009.pdf

Young people make mistakes, even those that go to GT. If not for 'grace', I might not be here today based on some of the decisions I made when I was that age.

 

[Techster]

He did play in the NC State game. I recall seeing him in the huddle during a timeout. He also appears on the Participation Report:

https://ramblinwreck.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/42009.pdf

Young people make mistakes, even those that go to GT. If not for 'grace', I might not be here today based on some of the decisions I made when I was that age.

I'm just glad social media and camera phones weren't around in my teens and early twenties. Dear lord, imagine how many of our lives would be different if those things were around when we were younger.

 

[7979]

Very sad.
4EVER writes, "...people travel everywhere with these things." Well, yeah, "people" who smoke dope probably do travel with them.
Marijuana usage has become so ubiquitous that pro and college teams have virtually stopped random testing. I would guess that Perry's arrest in the possession of any amount of the drug would trigger a GT Athletic Department-mandated drug test...which he failed...so, I doubt that he plays again until his sytem is "clean"...

 

[4shotB]

I'm just glad social media and camera phones weren't around in my teens and early twenties. Dear lord, imagine how many of our lives would be different if those things were around when we were younger.

I retired not too long ago. one of the last things I did was teach high schoolers. I always told them that, despite what they were being told by the old people, they were not in fact more stupid than my generation. It's just that we didn't have the ability to record ourselves doing all the stupid **** that we did and then post it where everyone in the entire world could see it. Thank goodness for minor miracles.