UNFORESEEN TROUBLE

Clemson arrests out of character. For the second time since April Clemson
coach Tommy Bowden has dismissed promising football players from his team
following felony arrests. Akil Desmond Smith and Travis Zachery, arrested
recently on drug charges, were from good homes and stable backgrounds. So
were three players arrested in April.

Yet Smith, a star offensive lineman, and Zachery, among the best running
backs in Clemson history, have both been arrested on drug-dealing charges.
Defensive linemen Paul White, Marcus Lewis and Tyrone Dickerson are now
serving jail terms for a string of burglaries committed in Clemson dormitories.

Smith is the son of a Greenville physician, White is the son of a police
officer and Lewis is the son of a prominent minister. At the time of his
arrest, Lewis was an honor roll student with a grade point average in
excess of 3.5. No one could have predicted these young men would one day
wind up in handcuffs. In the case of Lewis, he was the rare scholar-athlete
whose classroom achievements outshone his athletic exploits.

In Clemson's recent history, the football program has at times taken
deserved criticism for ignoring the troubled backgrounds of some of its
recruits. Invariably, those decisions would embarrass the university at a
later date. But the Clemson athletic department seems free of blame here.