CLEMSON, S.C. -- Two Clemson football starters have been arrested on drug charges, the third time in two years a group of Tigers have had problems with the law. Senior running back Travis Zachery and junior left tackle Akil Smith were arrested Tuesday, according to the State Law Enforcement Division. Both have been suspended from school and kicked off the football team, officials said.

In a prepared statement, coach Tommy Bowden said dismissing the players was in the best interest of the team and university. Smith, 22, is charged with three counts of sale of marijuana and sale of marijuana within proximity of a school. Zachery, 24, faces a charge of distribution of marijuana. Both players could face a maximum of five years in prison for each of the sale or distribution charges. Smith could face 10 years in prison on each of the charges of selling drugs near a school. SLED agents say they arrested the pair after they sold marijuana to undercover agents or informants.

The arrests follow two other incidents involving football players. Two former players pleaded guilty to making and passing counterfeit bills in June, and three players pleaded guilty to pulling fire alarms in dorms and stealing from the empty rooms in August. Smith, who missed all of the 2000 season because of a blood clot in his lung, started all but two games this year. He won the Atlantic Coast Conference's offensive lineman of the week award in October for throwing a crucial block during Woodrow Dantzler's game-winning touchdown run against Georgia Tech. Zachery ran for three touchdowns and caught a pass for another score in Clemson's 59-31 victory over Duke last Saturday. He's run for 576 yards and eight touchdowns this year. Warrants say Smith sold drugs to police Aug. 28, Sept. 7 and Sept. 9. The purchases were made within a half-mile of the university, police said. Zachery sold an ounce of what he said was marijuana to an informant for $175 on Nov. 5, according to a sworn statement. The arrests came on the same day Clemson accepted an invitation to play Louisiana Tech in the Humanitarian Bowl in Boise, Idaho. -AP News

Sad news indeed. Even sadder is the second to last sentence where is states that Zachery "sold what he said was marijuana." How pathetic is it that these boys were busted on what was probably a bag of oregano. I cannot think of anything so moronic as that. On a final note, I hope the irony is not lost on you, dear reader, that "Thugson" will be playing in the HUMANITARIAN Bowl. Maybe Zachery and Smith should say they were only selling drugs to people who had glaucoma.