(UHND) — Notre Dame and Charlie Weis landed its 2nd quarterback for this year’s recruiting class when Demetrius Jones of Chicago pulled the trigger and gave Notre Dame is 11th commitment of the year.
Jones (6’3”, 195 lbs), a “dual threat” quarterback, is a very highly touted quarterback this year with some impressive rankings. Rivals.com ranks Jones as the #2 dual threat quarterback and the #52 overall prospect in the Rivals 100. Tom Lemming, a Chicago based recruiting analyst, ranks Jones as the #6 overall quarterback and the #33 rated prospect overall in his top 100.
Many fans got their first glimpse of Jones last year during the US Army All American Bowl when Jones was seen on the sidelines, already gaining national attention. Jones received plenty of attention from recruits as well with scholarship offers from all of his top 5 – Illinois, Purdue, Ohio State, Notre Dame, and North Carolina. Demetrius also received offers from the likes of Tennessee, Michigan, Louisville, Boston College, Oregon, and Michigan State among many others.
Many thought the commitment of Zach Frazer back in the spring would push Jones away from Notre Dame, but the Chicago signal caller could not pass up the opportunity to play for Notre Dame and Charlie Weis.
This commitment was huge because it gave Notre Dame two potentially top 10 quarterbacks in this class and will create some intense competition next fall when both report to Notre Dame. Many fans have suggested that Jones may end up at another position, but I wouldn’t count on that. Jones is not just a good runner who can throw, Jones is an excellent quarterback who happens to be able to run very well.
Last season Jones threw only 3 interceptions compared to 21 touchdown passes for his Morgan Park squad. He also added another 11 touchdowns on the ground. It is going to be very interesting to see how Weis uses Jones once he is at Notre Dame. Weis has said that he tailors his offense to his players strengths many times. So far in his career Weis has not really had a mobile quarterback. In New York Weis had Vinny Testaverde and in New England he had Drew Bledsoe and Tom Brady — none of which scared anyone with their feet.
Notre Dame now has 11 commitments — 9 of them on the offensive side of the ball. Jones also adds to the Midwest-flair that this class has with 2 commits from Indiana, 3 from Ohio, and 2 from Missouri.
Notre Dame is done with its quarterback recruiting with Frazer and Jones in the fold. The Irish are also done at running back with James Aldridge, Luke Schmidt, and Munir Prince already commited. Three weeks before the start of the season, Notre Dame is already done recruiting two of its most important positions this year and have filled those positions with their top targets — not bad for a former NFL coach who was going to have trouble recruiting.
