December 8, 2005
Jones: “I Know It’s Not Me”
by RYAN O'LEARY
Demetrius Jones spent part of his study hall on Thursday afternoon perusing the various Notre Dame message boards – and he finds the rumors floating around pretty funny.
The latest scuttlebutt has former Arkansas commit Mitch Mustain coming aboard with the Irish, possibly at the expense of one of the current quarterback verbals (Jones or Zach Frazer). The word floating around cyberspace is that Jones or Frazer has been “dropped because of character issues.”
If indeed there is anything to the gossip, Jones says matter-of-factly, “I know it's not me.”
He describes his relationship with Charlie Weis as “more than just a player-coach relationship,” and says that anything in his life that could be construed as a "character issue" is just joke fodder between Weis and Jones, if anything at all.
Besides, would Jones really have been at the banquet last weekend if he had been dropped?
He says he's seen video of Mustain, and acknowledges that the Springdale (Ark.) star is a good player, but finds the idea that Mustain would steal a scholarship from he or Frazer ridiculous.
“He ain't good enough to snatch anybody's schollie,” he said. “People are trying to make excuses to drop me and Zach.”
He wouldn't comment on whether there are any issues with Frazer, saying it's not his place to speculate on gossip or rumors about other players. The two don't speak on a regular basis.
“If the shoe don't fit my size, 13,” Jones said, “I'm not gonna put it on.”
He will, however, be putting on a Notre Dame helmet come summertime – that much can be set in stone. Jones isn’t worried about what gets said in the meantime.
“People (don’t have anything) else to do but spread rumors,” he said in response to all the chatter.
He added that he doesn’t care if Notre Dame takes more than two quarterbacks, but noted that Weis did say he’d only sign two.
“I’m sure he’s a man of his word,” said Jones.
Demetrius is a man of his word as well – and his word is that nothing’s going to get in the way of him playing for the Irish, so any talk surrounding him can be put to rest.
Stay tuned into BlueandGold.com for any developments in this “situation,” but be assured that none of it involves anyone in Chicago.