He will graduate this spring. I wish him good luck wherever he lands. He was being passed up on the depth chart, but he is another transfer from the 2018 class.
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twice and while he may have been a 4 star athlete ( I believe he participated in 3 sports), I didn't see a 4 star football player. FYI, his high school is about 10 minutes from my house and essentially in the same conference as our public high school. in fact, the two schools share practice/playing fields for many less prominent sports, (i.e. Lacrosse, Softball, Soccer, etc) that are built on an old Nike missiles site. (On a side note, it is one of the very few times I have seen real practical land use otherwise destined for over-built retail or over-priced housing)
Great athlete by all means but he really didn't have a defined position coming into ND as he played multiple positions in high school. Devaris Daniels, who went to the same high school, is an excellent comparison. It is not as if Jones had refined skills at any position coming into ND, nor does his school play a lot of high level competition -- in fact there are typically only two schools that they play who would remotely have players of his athletic skills. In other words, he look good because of who he played not because of what he showed against similarly skilled players. Like many 4 star players at many schools, he never found his niche at ND.
Like I said, he stayed the course got his degree and now can try his hand at another place. Good for him!
Even Joe Wilkins saw the field more, and contributed more.
The fact that he (Jones) didn't basically tells us what his ceiling (at Notre Dame) was set at.
That being said, I hope he shatters that ceiling wherever he lands.
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I've heard the sayings about the most popular player is always the backup quarterback, but you'd think Notre Dame has a superbowl winning team that just sits there and rots on the bench because "Kelly doesn't like them". Funny how most of these players, when they transfer, don't exactly light it up anywhere else either. Not knocking any individual player, but in general, these transfers are either to smaller schools or from one bench to another.
They're transferring to lesser schools but were often recruited by better schools. Often with offers from the upper echelon but after a 2,3yrs under BK they're getting offers from MAC schools or schools scratching the Top 25. Why is that...
You really think 5 Star Christ, 5 Star Kiel, 4 Star Kizer, 4 Star Jurko, 4 Star Hendrix, who allllll declined after being under BK for any substantial period of time is on them?? Book benefitted from the talent around him but did he ever grow or develop?? He still missing guys late in his Senior year. Not his fault, he was never that QB but it's not a coincidence that 3 Star Book, Golson, and Rees are those who Kelly favored....and Kizer never gets in if Zaire (who wasn't a top tier QB) doesnt get hurt. Is it a coincidence soon as Kizer got in...he looked the part?? Then gets coached for a year and seemed to regress?? Sorry...this "gets old" is a result of the guy who's been here the whole time.
When looking at the depth chart, he was maybe the 8th best WR on the roster - and almost everyone ahead of him was also a 4-star or 5-star
Johnson, Watts, Austin, Lenzy, Keys, Wilkins, and Davis were all ahead of him and Styles and Colzie likely would have passed him as well.
He got his ND degree and is moving on. This kind of roster churn is normal for a healthy program competing for the playoffs. The only transfer that raised any eye brows with me was Oghoufo and that was only because he went to Texas. All the other transfers have gone to much smaller programs.
"Kelly never plays younger guys!"
Then younger guys (like Johnson) passed this to-be senior on the depth chart, causing him to transfer.
"Kelly loses another 4 star that he refused to play!"
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He is just one of those players who looked great in high school (about 10 minutes from me) where he played multiple positions but never found a niche at ND.