Three Illini Football Players Arrested on Armed Robbery Charges Get Kicked Off the Team

Last year’s Illini football team was quite bad, and early projections and prognostications don’t see the team getting much better in 2017. At least the 2016 unit was a good group of guys off-the-field. Early on at least, we cannot say the same for the 2017 edition; at least not on this day in the preseason.

Three Illini football players, Darta Lee, Zarrian Holcombe and Howard Watkins, were arrested on charges of home invasion and armed robbery, we learned on May 9th.

It was just announced now that all three players have been kicked out of school.

Illini football coach Lovie Smith made a very strong statement today, conveying little to no tolerance for serious malfeasance within his program.

The very short statement reads: “Illinois football coach Lovie Smith has dismissed Zarrian Holcombe, Darta Lee and Howard Watkins from the Fighting Illini football program.”

The trio were booked two weeks ago in Champaign County Jail in connection with an alleged incident at Bromley Hall, one of the two most upscale university dormitories.

Records show Bromley Hall, one of few dorms on campus that’s privately owned and managed, not controlled by the University itself, as the home address of Lee and Watkins. Champaign police said the three players intruded the the victim’s dorm room, at 3:20 A.M. and announced a robbery. Upon the victim’s ability to identify one of the alleged perpetrators, via his voice, one of the burglars unmasked himself and told the victim it was all a prank.

Smith said on the 10th in a statement that Holcomb and Lee were already suspended for unspecified reasons, and would remain indefinitely suspended. Watkins was also declared indefinitely suspended that day.

Lee became the first Illini true freshman offensive lineman to start in the season opener in at least the last 20 seasons. He played in six games and started two. Holcombe played in a reserve role in seven games last season. Watkins was a freshman early enrollee.

All three were arraigned in local court the next day (May 11th).

This is a struggle for all major universities with high standards in athletic excellence. They regularly have to deal with legal issues off the field. For Illinois it’s been especially bad in recent years. We’ve witnessed Illini football and Illini basketball deal with a wide array of criminal activity, including issues with weed, alcohol, car accidents, thefts, fights, domestic violence, public intoxication, assault and more.

Hopefully Illinois Athletic Director Josh Whitman, Illini football Coach Lovie Smith and Illinois basketball coach Brad Underwood can put the hammer down on these behaviors, and hopefully that can greatly reduce the poor, and in some cases illegal, behavior.

Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, partnered with FOX Sports Engage Network. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, currently contributes to WGN CLTV and KOZN.

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