04-25-2008, 10:15 AM
Nothing really too new or special. Weis says he benched Jones for missing a meeting. It was nice to see a picture of a Bearcat on the front page of the Chicago Tribune Sports section.
Demetrius Jones, Notre Dame miles apart
Departed QB says Clausen was pick all along; Weis points to missed meeting
By Brian Hamilton | Tribune reporter
11:02 PM CDT, April 24, 2008
CINCINNATI - A handful of tan-conscious spectators sit on the sunny side of Nippert Stadium. Foot traffic pounds the upper-rim concourses of a bowl sunk into the middle of campus. In full view of whoever cares to look, Cincinnati's football team runs through its 13th practice of the spring.
The scene is, in nearly every imaginable way, new territory for Demetrius Jones.
At midfield, pantomiming a throw with his surgically repaired shoulder, the only connection to Notre Dame is the number 3 on Jones' red jersey. It may be for the best. The former Morgan Park quarterback started the Irish's 2007 season opener and was yanked before halftime, but he had been embroiled in drama even before that.
With his transfer to Cincinnati, the irony is that surgery and a new playbook put him in a quarterback battle he may not win. The reality is, without controversy, that qualifies as an upgrade.
"I'm at a place where I feel comfortable," Jones said after a recent practice.
"The thing that's different here than it was from over there, I would just have to say Coach [ Brian] Kelly just deals with us all a little different. He tells everybody what he wants, no type of hidden agenda or secret. If it's something he has planned in his mind, he's going to tell us."
This is a hairpin turn toward face-saving, though, a good reason for a fresh start roughly 250 miles from South Bend, Ind. Jones says he believes Irish coach Charlie Weis wanted to start Jimmy Clausen, then a freshman, all along in '07. That he was essentially a seat-filler for that disastrous opener against Georgia Tech.
Perhaps, but that ignores Jones' role in the hullabaloo. Reluctantly, emphasizing that he genuinely likes Jones but that he has to defend his decisions, Weis revealed to the Tribune on Thursday that Jones missed a mandatory team meeting the Sunday before the Georgia Tech game after Weis previously announced that any player missing the meeting would not play in the game.
At that time the entire team knew Jones was to be the starter, with a spread offense installed at the beginning of summer practice Aug. 6 to exploit his skills for the Sept. 1 opener.
Weis said he subsequently met with his captains and team leadership committee to decide how to handle Jones' infraction. The verdict: Jones would be allowed to play against Georgia Tech but would be suspended for the Penn State game the next week.
"The problem they had was, we practiced with this offense being the entire offense," Weis said. "[The players] felt we would have shafted the team if the game we pulled him from was the first game. The better way of doing it was to play him the first game and give [the team] the next week to get ready for the next opponent [without him]."
Two sources familiar with the situation confirmed Weis' account. Efforts to reach Jones for a response through Cincinnati, by telephone and via e-mail were unsuccessful. Jones was informed of the imminent disciplinary action after the Georgia Tech game, but that news may have been moot.
"I made up my mind on the sideline during the [Georgia Tech] game that I was leaving," Jones told the Tribune on Tuesday.
Melodrama ensued. Jones missed the team bus to the Michigan game, saying now the Irish "got the message" by his "slow-dragging" in practice that week. He enrolled simultaneously at Northern Illinois while he still was at Notre Dame, which wouldn't release him from his athletic scholarship until he met with school officials in South Bend.
Once that typhoon of misdirection and missteps blew over, clarity arrived. To use last season as the year he would redshirt as a transfer, Jones needed to enroll by the 12th day of classes elsewhere. If Northern Illinois was not a feasible option for him, he needed to find a school on the quarter system.
That ultimately led to Cincinnati and to Kelly, who had recruited Jones while he was coaching at Central Michigan. It also led to a spread offense and assurances that, basically, there were no assurances.
"When me and Coach Kelly sat down, we didn't even talk about the past," Jones says. "Basically he said I'm going to have to prove myself, which is all you can ask for from a head coach and coming into a program."
It will be a slog. In December, Jones had surgery to repair a torn labrum in his right shoulder, and he still is crawling up the depth chart.
It also created another exasperating he-said, he-said: Jones suggested Notre Dame ignored the injury so competition could occur while Clausen healed from elbow surgery. Weis said team doctors never reported Jones had any issues beyond "tendinitis in the bone."
Whatever the case, during that sun-baked practice this week, Jones snapped a tight spiral across his body on the last play of practice. Kelly acknowledged it was a far cry from the first day of spring, when Jones' pitiable tosses literally caused teammates to laugh. But it is no sign the end is near.
"Where he has come in 10 days is very encouraging because you know where he can go," Kelly said. "He's on his rehab stint. He's in Single A. He's getting his arm stronger, he has all the leadership intangibles and it's just a matter of time until he gets there."
For all the consternation and earth-scorching, Jones insists he values his "life experience" at Notre Dame. He says he has friends on the Irish, including Clausen in that bunch. He met up with ex-teammates Kallen Wade and Chris Stewart when the pair were in Cincinnati after Wade's mother passed away.
Oddly, a piece of chaos fuels his fresh start. A recap of that Georgia Tech game, in which he fumbled twice before his early exit, hangs on his bedroom wall. The headline reads "Rude Awakening."
"As much as I appreciate it," Jones says, "I don't want that to happen again."
bchamilton@tribune.com
linky
Demetrius Jones, Notre Dame miles apart
Departed QB says Clausen was pick all along; Weis points to missed meeting
By Brian Hamilton | Tribune reporter
11:02 PM CDT, April 24, 2008
CINCINNATI - A handful of tan-conscious spectators sit on the sunny side of Nippert Stadium. Foot traffic pounds the upper-rim concourses of a bowl sunk into the middle of campus. In full view of whoever cares to look, Cincinnati's football team runs through its 13th practice of the spring.
The scene is, in nearly every imaginable way, new territory for Demetrius Jones.
At midfield, pantomiming a throw with his surgically repaired shoulder, the only connection to Notre Dame is the number 3 on Jones' red jersey. It may be for the best. The former Morgan Park quarterback started the Irish's 2007 season opener and was yanked before halftime, but he had been embroiled in drama even before that.
With his transfer to Cincinnati, the irony is that surgery and a new playbook put him in a quarterback battle he may not win. The reality is, without controversy, that qualifies as an upgrade.
"I'm at a place where I feel comfortable," Jones said after a recent practice.
"The thing that's different here than it was from over there, I would just have to say Coach [ Brian] Kelly just deals with us all a little different. He tells everybody what he wants, no type of hidden agenda or secret. If it's something he has planned in his mind, he's going to tell us."
This is a hairpin turn toward face-saving, though, a good reason for a fresh start roughly 250 miles from South Bend, Ind. Jones says he believes Irish coach Charlie Weis wanted to start Jimmy Clausen, then a freshman, all along in '07. That he was essentially a seat-filler for that disastrous opener against Georgia Tech.
Perhaps, but that ignores Jones' role in the hullabaloo. Reluctantly, emphasizing that he genuinely likes Jones but that he has to defend his decisions, Weis revealed to the Tribune on Thursday that Jones missed a mandatory team meeting the Sunday before the Georgia Tech game after Weis previously announced that any player missing the meeting would not play in the game.
At that time the entire team knew Jones was to be the starter, with a spread offense installed at the beginning of summer practice Aug. 6 to exploit his skills for the Sept. 1 opener.
Weis said he subsequently met with his captains and team leadership committee to decide how to handle Jones' infraction. The verdict: Jones would be allowed to play against Georgia Tech but would be suspended for the Penn State game the next week.
"The problem they had was, we practiced with this offense being the entire offense," Weis said. "[The players] felt we would have shafted the team if the game we pulled him from was the first game. The better way of doing it was to play him the first game and give [the team] the next week to get ready for the next opponent [without him]."
Two sources familiar with the situation confirmed Weis' account. Efforts to reach Jones for a response through Cincinnati, by telephone and via e-mail were unsuccessful. Jones was informed of the imminent disciplinary action after the Georgia Tech game, but that news may have been moot.
"I made up my mind on the sideline during the [Georgia Tech] game that I was leaving," Jones told the Tribune on Tuesday.
Melodrama ensued. Jones missed the team bus to the Michigan game, saying now the Irish "got the message" by his "slow-dragging" in practice that week. He enrolled simultaneously at Northern Illinois while he still was at Notre Dame, which wouldn't release him from his athletic scholarship until he met with school officials in South Bend.
Once that typhoon of misdirection and missteps blew over, clarity arrived. To use last season as the year he would redshirt as a transfer, Jones needed to enroll by the 12th day of classes elsewhere. If Northern Illinois was not a feasible option for him, he needed to find a school on the quarter system.
That ultimately led to Cincinnati and to Kelly, who had recruited Jones while he was coaching at Central Michigan. It also led to a spread offense and assurances that, basically, there were no assurances.
"When me and Coach Kelly sat down, we didn't even talk about the past," Jones says. "Basically he said I'm going to have to prove myself, which is all you can ask for from a head coach and coming into a program."
It will be a slog. In December, Jones had surgery to repair a torn labrum in his right shoulder, and he still is crawling up the depth chart.
It also created another exasperating he-said, he-said: Jones suggested Notre Dame ignored the injury so competition could occur while Clausen healed from elbow surgery. Weis said team doctors never reported Jones had any issues beyond "tendinitis in the bone."
Whatever the case, during that sun-baked practice this week, Jones snapped a tight spiral across his body on the last play of practice. Kelly acknowledged it was a far cry from the first day of spring, when Jones' pitiable tosses literally caused teammates to laugh. But it is no sign the end is near.
"Where he has come in 10 days is very encouraging because you know where he can go," Kelly said. "He's on his rehab stint. He's in Single A. He's getting his arm stronger, he has all the leadership intangibles and it's just a matter of time until he gets there."
For all the consternation and earth-scorching, Jones insists he values his "life experience" at Notre Dame. He says he has friends on the Irish, including Clausen in that bunch. He met up with ex-teammates Kallen Wade and Chris Stewart when the pair were in Cincinnati after Wade's mother passed away.
Oddly, a piece of chaos fuels his fresh start. A recap of that Georgia Tech game, in which he fumbled twice before his early exit, hangs on his bedroom wall. The headline reads "Rude Awakening."
"As much as I appreciate it," Jones says, "I don't want that to happen again."
bchamilton@tribune.com
linky
