The wide-ranging NCAA investigation into Tennessee football had one indirect link to Georgia, which Bulldogs coach Kirby Smart addressed during his appearance at SEC Media Days on Tuesday.

KnoxNews.com reported Saturday that former Bulldogs tight end Darnell Washington accepted cash and other impermissible benefits from ex-Tennessee assistant coach Brian Niedermeyer during the recruiting process. Washington, a four-star recruit out of Las Vegas in 2020, was a key contributor to Georgia’s 2021 and 2022 national championship teams before being drafted by the NFL’s Pittsburgh Steelers in April.

Niedermeyer reportedly handed Washington $750 in cash during a visit to the player’s high school in January 2019, a visit that in itself was also illegal under NCAA rules because Washington had not yet completed his junior year. Smart told reporters Tuesday in Nashville that he was unaware of the allegations regarding Washington’s recruitment until he read about them over the weekend.

“No, we don’t get involved in any kind of NCAA investigation,” Smart said, via OnlineAthens.com. “Wasn’t aware of it or known about it, really anything to do with it. I saw the reports like you guys did.”

Washington accepting cash from a Tennessee recruiter technically made him ineligible under NCAA rules, though Georgia would not be held liable unless proof emerged Bulldogs coaches were aware of the payment and let him play anyway. No such evidence has been alleged or uncovered.

Niedermeyer was among eight former Tennessee coaches and staff members — a group that also included head coach Jeremy Pruitt — who were given show-cause penalties by the NCAA as a result of the investigation into illegal recruiting tactics from 2018-2020. Niedermeyer was fired by Tennessee along with Pruitt in January 2021 and is now a high school assistant coach in Florida.