According to reports in the Detroit Free Press and the South Bend Tribune, Demetrius Jones said he was stung by Charlie Weis’ comments that freshman Jimmy Clausen was Notre Dame’s top quarterback all along but was not named the opening game starter because he was recovering from surgery to remove a bone spur from his throwing elbow. “When I heard Jimmy was the No. 1 all the way through spring and that the only thing that was keeping him out of the lineup was his surgery, well that’s not what I was led to believe going into the summer, I thought I was getting a chance because coach Weis believed in me. Then I didn’t know what to believe anymore.”

Ben Smith of the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette opines…

“Weis came in as an offensive genius, a guy who declared that he would never get outschemed. Seen anything that looks like a scheme lately? Instead Weis spent the bulk of training camp putting in some sort of baroque spread to take advantage of Demetrius Jones’ allegedly multiple skills, then abandoned it in less than a half. Then bailed on Jones, who reacted to essentially being used as a guinea pig by fleeing to Northern Illinois. Then bailed on Evan Sharpley, who never had a chance behind the nation’s worst offensive line. That left Weis with prize freshman Jimmy Clausen, who got thrown to the wolves at Penn State and then to the Wolverines at Michigan. Maybe he’ll survive and be stronger for the experience. Or maybe he’ll get fed up and join Jones over in DeKalb, Ill.  Bottom line is Weis misplayed the quarterback situation about as badly as you can misplay it, and now he’s stuck. He can’t bench Clausen or he goes back to playing musical quarterbacks, something he’s vowed not to do. But if the offensive line can’t give the kid a chance to play any better than he did Saturday, what choice does Weis have? More and more, the man looks not like the genius he was hyped to be than what he is, a top-drawer pro assistant with no college head coaching experience. His signature win in two seasons and change actually is a loss, that ringing 34-31 near-miss two autumns ago against No. 1 USC. He’s gotten rocked as badly as Willingham or Bob Davie ever did in two BCS bowls. And if Brady Quinn set all kinds of records in Weis’ offense … well, maybe that had more to do with Quinn than with Weis.”

I read a lot of criticisms of Jeff Jagodzinski describing him as a pro assistant with no college head coaching experience. I guess in October it will be interesting to watch two pro assistants with no college head coaching experience play some gridiron chess.