Demetrius Jones on ND

Spring practice began today with Notre Dame transfer Demetrius Jones throwing down field for the first time since he underwent surgery last fall to repair a torn labrum in his right shoulder. After practice, he talked about how happy he was to be at UC.

“Right now, the first day, it’s just getting out there, getting loose, learning the new system and most of all not knowing that you’re 3-9,” he said.

That 3-9, of course, was a not-so-veiled reference to Notre Dame’s record last season. Jones was the starting quarterback for the season opener vs. Georgia Tech but was replaced before the end of the first half after he fumbled twice, ran 12 times for 28 yards and completed 1 of 3 passes for four yards.

He did not make the trip with the team to the Michigan game two weeks later and eventually transferred to UC.

Jones now says it’s clear to him that ND coach Charlie Weis never intended for him to be the starting quarterback, that Weiss planned to have freshman Jimmy Clausen run the offense all along.

“At the end of the day you’ve got to understand that college football is a business,” Jones said. “I’m a man of integrity. I’m not stupid. I’ve never seen a quarterback lose a position in a quarter. It don’t take me much to read between the lines to see that that was (Clausen’s) position even before he came there and I was just in an unfortunate situation. As a man, I’m able to look clear cut at that. That was basically the plan, for that to be his position.”

Jones said the only reason he started the season opener against Georgia Tech was to protect Clausen.

“You’ve got to look at Georgia Tech and their defense,” he said. “Who wants to put a freshman out there against a whole bunch of guys from the South who are going to be running around blitzing? That’s why he didn’t send him into the game until the third group was out there.”

After Jones arrived at UC, the training staff discovered that he had the torn labrum, an injury that Jones said was diagnosed as tendonitis when he was at Notre Dame.

“People call it immature or walking out on your team,” Jones said of his departure from Notre Dame. “But if I didn’t leave we wouldn’t be having this conversation and I wouldn’t have my shoulder fixed. It was just a situation I had to get out for the benefit of my future.”