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Lovie Smith dismisses three Illini arrested for alleged home invasion

Dustin Schutte

By Dustin Schutte

Published:

The three Illinois football players who were arrested earlier this month on charges of home invasion and residential burglary have been dismissed from the football program.

Darta Lee, Zarrian Holcombe and Howard Watkins were temporarily suspended after the charges, but Lovie Smith didn’t wish to make any immediate decision on their statuses until more information surfaced. The news of the dismissal came on Wednesday night:

Following the arrests of the three players, Smith did state that Lee and Holcombe were already suspended from the team but didn’t offer any details. The two played as freshman in the 2016 season.

Holcombe, who arrived in Champagne in January, was set to play in 2017.

After the arrests were made on May 10, Smith released the following statement:

These allegations, if true, fail to live up to the standards we expect of our student-athletes. We continue to gather information and will take appropriate steps based upon what we learn.

Dustin Schutte

Dustin grew up in the heart of Big Ten country and has been in sports media since 2010. He has been covering Big Ten football since 2014. You can follow him on Twitter: @SchutteCFB