DID JONES JUMP A SINKING SHIP?
Give defector qb Demetrius Jones credit for this much. He seems to have gotten out while the getting was good.
Though his exit from the Notre Dame program was hardly classy, Jones went AWOL without having the balls or the courtesy to inform coach Charlie Weis, his timing couldn't have been better.
Perhaps sensing he was about to witness a third straight humiliation to start the '07 season, it looks like Jones decided that discretion was the better part of valor.
Rather then battle through his own challenges, not to mention having to watch his ex-team suffer through another ass whoopin', Jones took the easy way out. Like a desperate sailor jumping a sinking ship, Jones bailed out but quick. He couldn't wait to exit stage left. He got out of Dodge pronto.
For Jones, the frustration, disappointment and yes, the embarrassment of being a member of the Notre Dame football team is over. Having found a safe haven at Northern Illinois, Jones will no longer be a part of the carnage that's taking place in South Bend.
But unlike Jones, there are those that remain behind. And for them, the prospects for a fresh start or a brighter day seem doubtful and dubious. The storm clouds currently hovering over a shaken Irish program are both dark and extremely troubling.
If you thought the disheartening cave-ins to Georgia Tech and Penn State were disgraceful, well, what took place in Ann Arbor went beyond the pale. In the storied history of Irish football, the 38-0 lay down to Michigan ranks as one of the all-time lows. The Domers are reaching depths they haven't plumbed in who knows how long. If the Irish haven't reached rock-bottom, they're getting perilously close to it.
Right now, the Domers are a joke and the stats bare out why they're such a laughingstock. The numbers paint a picture of utter incompetence and ineptitude.
For only the second time in school annuls, the Irish are 0 and 3. That's bad enough but dating back to last season, ND has dropped five consecutive contests and worse, they were blown out in each and everyone of them. Adding to the misery is the fact that ND has been outscored by an astonishing 102 to 13. Ouch!
But that doesn't even begin to tell the whole story.
ND's woeful and pathetic offense has yet to generate a single touchdown in '07. That's right, not a solitary one. And as for their abysmal running attack, the Irish must think the objective is to go in reverse given their putrid cumulative total of -14 yards on the ground in three games. Yikes!
You almost have to try at being that bad!
Notre Dame's play is so horrendous it probably has Knute Rockne spinning in his grave, Ara Parseghian turning apoplectic and the usually loquacious Lou Holtz going mute.
Out of self-respect, the Leprechaun has buried his head in the nearest pot of gold while "Touchdown" Jesus has lowered his hands from the upright position and placed then firmly over his nose because something really smells. And that foul odor is coming from the Irish sideline courtesy of Charlie Weis and his staff, with plenty of assistance from the players.
The team that Weis has presented to the nation over the past 15 days is so underwhelming, so overmatched that he's starting to make Gerry Faust, Bob Davie and Tyrone Willingham look like geniuses which is darn near impossible to do.
But as much as I praised Weis for stabilizing the program the previous two years, he deserves the harshest of slaps for the slop he's now putting out on the field. It's garbage times two. Weis should be red-faced and apologetic for authoring such a disorganized and lifeless team.
In the aftermath of such a dismal start, Weis has vowed to make like it's training camp and begin anew. May I recommend a return to the basics and a stressing of the rudiments of the game. Weis should go elementary and offer a tutorial in Football 101.
He might wish to open his instruction with this simplistic message: "Gentlemen, this is a football. And the object of the game is to hold onto said football and not make nice by handing it over to the opposition."
Given the outrageous manner in which ND has played hot potato with the pigskin and turned fumbling into an art form, this should be lesson number one. Hopefully, it will take.
If the Irish should continue their descent into the abyss, if they don't soon demonstrate some pride and fight, their vaunted reputation will take a severe hit. The Golden Dome could begin to tarnish and ND might quickly become the Midwestern equivalent of Temple or Duke. But excuse me, that's not fair to the Blue Devils because they've at least have won this year.
Right now, the Irish are among the dregs. They're bottom-feeders and third-class citizens. Westwood One announcer Don Criqui, himself an ND grad, was moved to say on Saturday that the Irish aren't "competitive." ESPN's Doug Gottleib was brutally blunt when he quipped that ND "stinks." ABC college analysts Craig James and Doug Flutie were quick to agree that the Domers are just flat out "bad."
Weis has created an absolute mess and it will take Herculean effort to get things right. However, the clean up must begin right away or not only will the season get away from him but Weis will run the very real risk of losing this football team as well. They very well could give up the ghost, go in the tank and pack it in.
And in that case, Demetrius Jones will be mighty glad he got out when he did!