Demetrius Jones is a communist

by Rob on Sep 19, 2007 11:55 PM EDT in Notre Dame Football Comment 3 comments

I'm sure most of you are aware of the Demetrius Jones situation. Basically it went like this:

1.    Demetrius starts against Georgia Tech, fumbles twice and is replaced by Evan Sharpley
2.    Demetrius goes into Penn State the #3 quarterback
3.    Unhappy at his position on the team, Demetrius starts looking around
4.    Demetrius leaves the team on Thursday night but informs no one, including the coaching staff. They later find out when they are boarding the bus for Ann Arbor
5.    Demetrius enrolls at Northern Illinois

Now comes this:

ND won't let Jones out of scholarship

By Michael Rothstein

The Journal Gazette

SOUTH BEND - Demetrius Jones will have to pay his own way to Northern Illinois this year.
The former Notre Dame quarterback will not be released from his scholarship, the school decided Tuesday.

"We don't believe that Demetrius' departure was handled appropriately," Notre Dame athletics director Kevin White said.

Jones made his decision known by not showing up for Notre Dame's bus to Michigan on Friday afternoon. He did, however, go to Northern Illinois' game against Eastern Michigan in DeKalb, Ill., on Saturday.

Jones told the South Bend Tribune he started classes Monday and Jones finally spoke to Notre Dame head coach Charlie Weis late Monday evening.
"It was a cordial conversation," Weis said. "I wouldn't say aired it out but we cleared up what was going on and he said he's moved on and that's about it."

Weis said he wasn't involved in whether or not Jones was released from his scholarship. The decision is usually made between institutions and athletic directors.

Now, per NCAA transfer rules, Jones will have to wait one year and pay one year's worth of tuition at Northern Illinois before the Huskies are allowed to place him on scholarship. The school's Web site lists the typical one year of tuition and room and board at $14,530.

Northern Illinois sports information director Donna Turner said the Huskies are at their scholarship limit for the 2007 season anyway and that Jones hasn't been cleared to practice yet as he is going through university processing on his transfer.

Personally, I love this decision by White. First of all, it really doesn't matter what Notre Dame did in this situation. Demetrius wouldn't be able to go on scholarship since NIU is above the scholarship limit as it is. Don't you think Demetrius would've at least checked if NIU had scholarships before he went there? That might have been a good question to ask before he quit the team.

Secondly, Demetrius deserves everything that has happened to him. Let me get this straight: he quits the team, enrolls into another university, and the first conversation he has with Weis is 5 days after the fact. And people are upset that we aren't letting him out of his scholarship? Please. It's probably a good lesson for Demetrius in the long run. Notre Dame was going to pay for his entire education and yet he was willing to walk away from it without a simple goodbye. Most of us have gotten screwed by people much more than Demetrius has, so I think he should be thankful he got the opportunity and grateful that another school is giving him a second chance.

Lastly, people wonder what this will do for our recruiting and our image. Who gives a %#*@! If a recruit is not willing to come to Notre Dame because he actually has given thought to the possibility of transferring, I don't think we want him here. I'm sure opposing coaches have a lot more negative recruiting tactics under their belts than using this against Notre Dame. Columnists have a lot more ammo at their disposal against Notre Dame than just this. We've survived 100+ years of getting criticized for everything we do, I think we can survive another year. Frankly, let's worry about winning a damn game (or even scoring an offensive touchdown) before we get our panties in a bunch about the possible recruiting ramifications of teaching this kid a valuable life lesson.

On a final note, just one more thing I'd like to say: Good on you, Mr. (I apologize...Dr.) White. Good on you.

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Your sequence is a little off.

Everything I've seen puts #5 somewhere between #1 and #4. Demetrius enrolled at NIU before he left ND. In fact, that's the big thing that has everyone so pissed off, that he appears to have practiced with ND while already enrolled at NIU.

by Mr Wednesday on Sep 20, 2007 11:54 AM EDT reply actions

You could be right

But I don't think that's been confirmed. You could very well be right.

by Rob on Sep 20, 2007 6:22 PM EDT reply actions

Typical ND Move

White not letting Jones out of his scholarship is spiteful and harmful to the ND program.

Kids are leaving ND because it is a anti-player environment. This was reinforced by White

If White and the ND program cared about it's players, it would release Jones so that ND could provide the available scholarship to one of the hard-working walk-ons.

It won't because ND doesn't care, it would rather make a statement to the rest of the team to scare other disgruntled players.

by HuskieFan on Sep 20, 2007 10:00 PM EDT reply actions