Illinois football coach Lovie Smith announced Wednesday that he has dismissed from the program the three players arrested this month for an alleged dormitory burglary.
Tight end Zarrian Holcombe and offensive linemen Darta Lee and Howard Watkins were suspended indefinitely after their arrests May 10 on felony charges of residential burglary and aggravated robbery.
Police say the three entered a fellow student’s dorm room at about 1 a.m. wearing masks and wielding a BB gun that the victim believed was a real gun. They went through the 19-year-old man’s dresser drawers and wallet, police say.
The players have said they were pulling a prank on the man, who recognized one of them by voice.
Holcombe, from Houston, and Lee, from Fresno, Texas, would have been sophomores next season. They played in a combined 13 games as freshmen, with Lee making two starts at guard. Watkins, from Cincinnati, was a Class of 2017 recruit who enrolled at Illinois in January.