DEMETRIUS JONES IS FREE TO TRANSFER, WHERE NOTRE DAME SAYS HE CAN TRANSFER

by SMQ on Sep 21, 2007 9:17 AM EDT in News

What we know about Demetrius Jones' high-profile departure from Notre Dame:

• Demetrius Jones entered the offseason with an ostensibly fair opportunity to win the starting quarterback job, and was a finalist for the position.

• Jones was named the starter internally the week before the opener with Georgia Tech, as word leaked on the Web and was confirmed by Jones' presence in the starting lineup that weekend.

• To some extent, Charlie Weis scrapped his pro-style, pocket-passing system in practice to take advantage of Jones' athleticism in a de rigeur read option attack from the shotgun, as seen in the first few possessions Jones played against the Jackets.

• Jones was quickly benched and the system designed to his talents scrapped after roughly one miserable quarter.

• Jimmy Clausen was subsequently named the starter, as Weis suggested he would have been from the beginning if not for an elbow injury that limited his throwing ability at the start of fall practice. Jones' time at the front of the order looks like an experiment conceived from the outset with the goal of keeping Clausen's spot warm, and possibly to a lesser extent to catch Georgia Tech by surprise, until defenses catch on and Jimmy ascends to his destiny.

Demetrius gets while the gettin's good.
- - -

• Jones failed to board the bus to Ann Arbor for the Irish's game at Michigan last week and pops up in the Northern Illinois student directory. This week, Jones said he bailed on Weis for being misled about his real chances of becoming the full-time quarterback - while insisting he did inform the team before it left for Michigan - and the university refused to release Jones from his scholarship.

So an about-face Thursday, of sorts:

According to a statement from athletics director Kevin White Thursday, Notre Dame will release quarterback Demetrius Jones from his scholarship as long as the school is not on ND's future football schedule -- and it's not Northern Illinois.

"Since learning of the situation surrounding the departure of Demetrius Jones on Friday, Sept. 14, the University of Notre Dame has been gathering facts to better assess his interest in transferring," White said in his statement. "Today, without formal confirmation of Demetrius' status, we reached out to him to assist him and his family in ascertaining his athletic and academic future plans.

"We are helping Demetrius compile a list of prospective schools that are not on our immediate future football schedules. We will grant him a release to those schools, and we will assist him in settling at another institution as best we can."
- - -

The university's position - "without formal confirmation of Demetrius' status..." - is that it had no idea Jones was leaving, which Jones himself disputes, but either way, it makes some cynical sense that it doesn't want to play ball on his transfer if it's going to benefit an imminent opponent. But after cynically stringing him along with apparently no intention to fulfill the promised opportunity, to deny Jones his wish to move to Northern Illinois - close to where he grew up in Chicago, where he will not play against Notre Dame or likely ever have to enter its collective consciousness again - seems the height of petty vindictiveness. And if petty vindictiveness is not at the root of kiboshing a scholarship at a MAC school many Domers likely can't nor will ever be required to locate on a map, what is?

- - -
At the South Bend Tribune, Jason Kelly has the same reaction: "Jones has the excuse of being 19 years old. Notre Dame has no justifiable explanation -- except spite."

0 recs | Comment 13 comments

Story-email Email Printer Print

Comments

You may want to read...

Demetrius' latest.

http://chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/sports/college/notredame/cs-djones21sep21,1,4111856.story?co ll=cs-college-notredame-print

He seems happy with the outcome. Why must ND's actions be considered "vindictive?" ND has an established policy and process for all ND athletic transfers. They can't simply ignore it because this transfer is higher in profile than a track athlete. How do you release a player from a scholarship if that player wont contact you?

At any rate, Jones even admits in this latest piece that he avoided telling Weis because he didn't want to be convinced to stay.

I was very upset when Demetrius left, partly for the way he left, but also because I'm pretty sure, had he stayed, that he was going to have a real opportunity to play. This business about "Clausen being #1 all along" is just plain wrong. Clausen was #1 after Spring Practice, but that doesn't mean the competition was over. Not by a long shot. Besides, it's pretty clear the way ND opened up against Michigan that Weis would really like to have the ability to run the spread or a variation of it at certain points in the game. Demetrius would have been a very key player on this squad.

by domermq on Sep 21, 2007 10:43 AM EDT 0 recs

Why not Northern Illinois?

It seems to me that Jones did not have a real chance to play, but I wouldn't have written a word if the transfer list hadn't extended to NIU, clearly Jones' top choice at this point. There's no reason for that except spite.

by SMQ on Sep 21, 2007 11:02 AM EDT up 0 recs

what's the source?

SMQ - I've clicked all the links in your article, and read fresh ones thanks to ND blogs - I don't see a single article that says that ND won't allow him to transfer to NIU. You blockquoted the statement from Kevin White without a link - and while that story says that ND won't release him to NIU, I don't see why that would be the case. The only criterion Kevin White mentions is that they won't release him to a school ND is playing during his eligibility - a criterion DJ agrees with in the chicago sports article linked above - and ND isn't playing NIU anytime in the scheduled future.

In other words - what's your source saying that ND is being vindictive and refusing to allow him to go to NIU?

by eirishis on Sep 21, 2007 12:13 PM EDT up 0 recs

Right about the link...

...it's been added. That was an oversight (the first time that's ever happened here, as far as I'm aware).

Anyway, the source is that story (the headline: "NIU not on ND's release list") along with the column linked at the bottom of the page along with the AP story all over the Web today that says exactly the same thing.The AP source is associate AD John Heisler. The Wizard of Odds cites a blog from a reporter from the Ft. Wayne Gazette who also has "a university source" saying Jones will not be released to NIU.

http://jgwebblogs.typepad.com/notre_dame/2007/09/change-of-heart.html

There is unanimity in every story this morning: Demetrius will not be released to go to NIU.

by SMQ on Sep 21, 2007 12:24 PM EDT up 0 recs

maybe he has found fault

with NIU's academics, no professors that work in his areas of interest

http://www.royalsreview.com

by royalsreview on Sep 21, 2007 12:29 PM EDT up 0 recs

You should at least consider...

The fact that Jones seems quite happy with this solution before you decide whether or not ND is being vindictive. I'm sure Jones knows why they wont release him to NIU. I think it's curious that none of the journalists I've found seem to have asked him for a reason.

Also consider the fact that it's Kevin White's MO to "protect the student" in these cases. He's got a poor record of handling ND PR very well, but he does have a pretty good record of protecting the student. Sometimes, in these sorts of cases, questions go unanswered for that reason.

Putting a lot of circumstantial evidence together, if I were to go around sniffing, I'd sniff in the direction of suspected tampering on the part of the NIU football staff. Or, at the very least, ND's concern that they can't prove NIU's tampering, or lack thereof, in a very timely manner, and it's important for Jones to get enrolled into a school in a timely manner.

by domermq on Sep 21, 2007 12:36 PM EDT up 0 recs

Love ND style

So White is protecting Jones now, how nice of him. Keeping the kid from where he wants to go sure is a funny way of showing it.

There is no hint of tampering by NIU, to make that accusation is a shot in the dark. If that is what ND thinks, why don't they say it? It sure looks like ND is trying to prove a point. Kind of like when the French would post guards with "shoot on sight" orders to keep the troops in the trenches.

by ev on Sep 21, 2007 4:09 PM EDT up 0 recs

There may be a question of tampering.

Jones' cousin plays for NIU. And apparently they traded messages via facebook before the transfer about the possibility of Jones playing for NIU. Though that may not be "tampering" by the letter of the NCAA law because Jones and the cousin already have a relationship, the ND AD may not entirely accept the notion that NIU's football staff had "nothing to do with it." They may have been using the cousin as a proxy.

by domermq on Sep 21, 2007 11:10 AM EDT 0 recs

I thought SMQ was above jumping into the ND pileon

guess not

this story has been misreported from day one

http://www.royalsreview.com

by royalsreview on Sep 21, 2007 12:22 PM EDT 0 recs

maybe ND can blame Willingham for Jones' transfer!

i find it interesting that domers are coming out of the woodwork to crap on another black guy. so, a 19 year old got lied to by a manipulative coach and wants to transfer to a school that ND will never play. get over it, let him go, and go back to throwing darts at your willingham poster.

by jm14 on Sep 21, 2007 2:13 PM EDT 0 recs

you nailed it

we're all racist, very very racist

actually, we're anti-semitic too

so I guess the discussion is pretty much over

http://www.royalsreview.com

by royalsreview on Sep 21, 2007 2:42 PM EDT up 0 recs

settle down!

i wouldn't want all this negative energy to impede your investigation into how willingham botched weis' gastric bypass surgery.

by jm14 on Sep 21, 2007 3:03 PM EDT 0 recs

update on the story

feel free to find a way to still make this negative

http://chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/sports/college/cs-070920jones_for_websep21,1,2473392.story?c oll=cs-home-headlines

It is that misunderstanding that bothers Jones the most now. Jones will go to Saturday's Notre Dame-Michigan State game.

"I'm going to root for those [Notre Dame] guys," Jones said. "The only thing I regret is how I had to leave. [Notre Dame] let me go the best way they could and that's pretty fair to me. If fans want to bash me, I understand where they're coming from. But this was a very hard decision."

One person Jones does not want to see bashed, however, is Irish coach Charlie Weis.

"He made an impact on my life, how to be a family man, lots of things," Jones said. "Everybody may not like him but he takes care of his business and he takes care of it every day. He doesn't change for anybody. He doesn't even let something like being 0-3 rattle his character or personality.

"When we talked [this week], we had a healthy conversation. He was talking to me like a father, not just a coach. I admitted to him that if I'd come to him before the Michigan game, he would've talked me out of [leaving].People didn't acknowledge that coach Weis and I had a great relationship. We've been through some rough times and some good times but we're linked to each other.

"I represent him. No matter what happens down the line, my career started at Notre Dame and that was because of coach Weis. I was a soldier in 'Charlie's army' and I enjoyed every minute of it."

When others suggested Jones should switch positions with Jimmy Clausen coming to Notre Dame, "the only one going to bat for me, saying 'Demetrius is a quarterback,' was coach Weis," Jones recalled. "Coach Weis told me this would be the hardest decision I would make. I feel like I'm blessed to have a second chance to do something so important."

http://www.royalsreview.com

by royalsreview on Sep 22, 2007 2:44 AM EDT 0 recs