Away from Irish, Jones looks at NIU
QUICK SWITCH | QB in DeKalb, reportedly has enrolled

September 16, 2007
BY RICK ARMSTRONG Beacon News
DEKALB, Ill. -- Demetrius Jones didn't go to Ann Arbor, Mich., on Saturday, opting to check out the fall colors in DeKalb instead.

They were predominantly blue as Northern Illinois had another second-half collapse and dropped a 21-19 decision to Eastern Michigan. But there appears to be better news on the horizon for the Huskies, as multiple sources said Jones has enrolled at NIU and will transfer from Notre Dame.

The former Morgan Park star, who started Notre Dame's opener at quarterback, attended the NIU-EMU game and was standing outside the players' entrance to the Yordon Center at Huskie Stadium shortly after it was over.

Approached by two reporters, he would neither confirm nor deny he was enrolled at the school but said he was waiting for Huskies linebacker Phil Brown, a former Morgan Park teammate.

''I'm Phil's cousin,'' Jones said. ''I'm here to check [the Huskies] out. These are my boys from Morgan Park.''

Cornerback Melvin Rice is also a Morgan Park grad.

Jones then added with a coy smile, ''Who knows, I may have an airplane coming in a couple minutes to bring me to Michigan.''

Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis had confirmed Friday that Jones, a sophomore, did not make the trip to Michigan with the rest of the Irish. Freshman Jimmy Clausen took over as Notre Dame's starter for the second game.

After a 38-0 loss to the Wolverines that dropped the Irish to 0-3, Weis said the Jones situation ''came as a surprise,'' but he did not blame his team's poor performance on the distraction.

''I don't know all the gory details, but obviously it was very, very surprising,'' Weis said. ''The big picture is the guys that are [Nos.] 1 and 2 [Clausen and Evan Sharpley] are 1 and 2. What it does is hurt your depth.''

A source close to the NIU program said he was told that Jones enrolled at the school on Sept. 4 -- the same day Clausen was named the Irish starter. A Demetrius Armond Jones of Chicago is listed in NIU's online student directory.

By enrolling by this past Wednesday -- the 12th day of classes at NIU -- Jones can count this fall toward the year he must sit out as a transfer. He then would have three more years of eligibility beginning in 2008 because he did not play as a freshman at Notre Dame.

NIU coach Joe Novak couldn't shed much light on the Jones reports at his postgame news conference.

''I can tell you this, I've heard a lot of rumors,'' he said. ''I've heard a lot of stuff. All I can tell you is I have had absolutely no contact with him, his family or any representatives of [his family], nor have our coaches. So I've listened to the same rumors everybody else is. That's all I know.''

But Notre Dame players certainly were talking as if Jones is done in South Bend.

''He made his decision and ran with it and it's on him,'' Sharpley said.

Said linebacker Anthony Vernaglia: ''Obviously, it's disappointing. But if you're not going to be behind us 100 percent, we don't want you on the team.''

A message apparently posted by Jones on Monday on Brown's Facebook page featured an action picture of Jones running the ball for the Irish.

It said: ''I see you reppin hard and its mighty strange. I look like I play for NIU in dat pict ... Who knows what's gonna happen.''

Sun-Times News Group

Contributing: Neil Hayes

http://www.suntimes.com/sports/colleges/...16.article