Backup punter dismissed from team

Here we go again.

Backup punter Trent Dittmer has been dismissed from the team after being arrested for public intoxication Tuesday in downtown Athens.

"The bottom line is I want to do what’s best for this football team and I want to do what’s best for the young men, too," Richt said on Thursday. "Sometimes if a young man loses an opportunity to play for your team, hopefully a lesson will be learned by him and everybody else who’s watching."

Police reports say Dittmer punched another person in the face and was making a scene during the incident. Police smelled alcohol on him as well.

Dittmer, who is a walk-on and has not punted in a game yet, is the third Georgia player to be dismissed this month, after linebacker Montez Robinson and quarterback Zach Mettenberger.

Hopefully this is the last of a string of off-field problems the Bulldogs have faced this month. As I said before with the Mettenberger incident, there's zero tolerance for this kind of behavior on a college football team, where young men are trying passionately to make a better life for themselves. And while it's degrading to hear it happen over and over, I have nothing but support for Richt letting these guys go, if it means cleaning up the locker room lifestyle.