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© St. Petersburg Times, published September 5, 2002
Georgia RB downplays dad's past
ATHENS, Ga. -- In the small Pennsylvania town where Georgia running back Musa Smith grew up, most folks know his father was convicted of crimes connected to an Islamic terrorist plot.
But his family history was kept so quiet in Georgia that even his coaches didn't know much about it. Now a feature article on Smith's family in ESPN The Magazine is forcing him to answer new questions.
Kelvin Smith, of rural New Bloomfield, Pa., was convicted of lying to federal investigators trying to stop a terrorist plot in 1999. Court documents say the elder Smith, 48, trained Islamic terrorists at the family's farm in rural Pennsylvania nearly 10 years ago.
Smith, a former U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officer, was accused of training six men who were convicted in a conspiracy to blow up the Lincoln and Holland tunnels, the United Nations and several other targets in New York. He admitted throwing several guns into a river so authorities wouldn't find them.
But Georgia coach Mark Richt says Musa Smith's family history has no bearing on his status as a player.
"Musa has been here for three years and has been nothing but a model player for us. I just see Musa Smith as a Georgia Bulldog. That's it," Richt said.
The standout running back, whose 105 rushing yards led the Bulldogs to a 31-28 victory over Clemson on Saturday, shrugged off the story. He said the events happened when he was very young, and he's on good terms with his father now.
"It doesn't have anything to do with football," Musa Smith said Tuesday. "It's personal. It's not an issue, and it doesn't deal with me."
NEBRASKA: Running back Thunder Collins was charged again with assaulting his girlfriend, and the team suspended him for the next three games for what it said was an unrelated NCAA investigation.
Charges last year that he pushed his live-in girlfriend several times, put her in a headlock and grabbed her by the throat were dropped after he entered a domestic violence prevention program.
Lancaster County prosecutor Gary Lacey refiled the two misdemeanor assault charges last month because Collins failed to complete the program and pay $200 in fees.
OBITS: Leon "Muscles" Campbell, a former Razorback and NFL running back, died Monday. He was 75. Also, Stanford's Frankie Albert, the first T-formation QB in modern history, died Wednesday from complications from Alzheimer's disease. He was 82.