Smith to remain on team

ATHENS - Georgia will retain an often-troubled lineman, Mark Richt said today.

Freshman center Ian Smith will remain on the team despite two arrests for alcohol-related incidents in 2006. He has been suspended from next week’s bowl game and the first five games of 2007.

“We’ll definitely get him on a program that will help him with this issue because this is a serious issue,” Richt said. “We wanted to do what was best for him and the issue he has with alcohol. We had to decide is it better for him to be here or to move on. I was thinking about moving him on to GMC for a year and bringing him back, but we felt our best opportunity to help him with the alcohol was to have him right here with us on a daily basis.”