Check Tommy Bowden's pulse.......

[Salt City Sooner]

because it looks like he certainly doesn't have a heart:


CLEMSON — Ray Ray McElrathbey is done with football at Clemson, and a teammate said it's because the Tigers' coaching staff decided not to renew his scholarship for the 2008-09 academic year.

Clemson announced Saturday that McElrathbey, a reserve tailback who gained national fame for taking custody of his younger brother, is no longer with the team. Team spokesman Tim Bourret said McElrathbey, who has two years of football eligibility remaining, will graduate in August and plans to attend graduate school or transfer and play elsewhere.

James Davis, a senior tailback for the Tigers, said McElrathbey told him he didn't have a choice.

"He said something about how they weren't going to renew his scholarship," said Davis, who has been friends with McElrathbey since their high school days in Atlanta. "It really surprised me. But there's a lot of stuff you can't say. It's something I guess everybody has to learn to live with."

McElrathbey, 21, who declined comment Saturday, attracted fame in the fall of 2006 for taking custody of his younger brother, Fahmarr, then 11. Their mother was struggling with a decade-long drug addiction and their father had a gambling problem.

McElrathbey redshirted in 2005 as a defensive back and played sparingly on special teams in 2006 before switching to running back a year ago. He was healthy after spending the past six months rehabilitating an injured knee that forced him to miss last season, and he participated in the team's winter conditioning regimen.

After Clemson wrapped up its first practice of the spring Saturday, which Ray Ray did not participate in, Coach Tommy Bowden did not confirm or deny that he initiated McElrathbey's departure to free up a scholarship. Clemson signed the maximum 25 players in February and is over the 85-scholarship limit mandated by the NCAA.

In addition, the Tigers have a multitude of running backs: Davis, junior C.J. Spiller, and incoming freshmen Jamie Harper and Berkeley's Andre Ellington.

"We're pretty good at running back right now," Bowden said.

Athletic scholarships are renewed on a year-to-year basis. Davis said McElrathbey began to hear whispers about a month ago that his scholarship wouldn't be renewed this summer.

"He knew in his mind they were going to do it," Davis said. "It's hard on him right now. I kind of feel his pain."

McElrathbey had a difficult relationship with his coaches, reportedly because of academic setbacks and spotty attendance at team functions. During spring drills last year, he was suspended for four practices because Bowden said he was "having a tough time juggling academics."

"I'm not sure he can do it at the level that he needs to at both ends," Bowden said at the time.

A sociology major, McElrathbey landed on the honor roll last semester while taking 21 hours, according to Clemson. If he does graduate in August, he'll have received his degree three years after his arrival at Clemson.

In August 2007, a few days before he suffered the season-ending knee injury, McElrathbey groused that his fame forced him to live to a higher standard.

"I'm not what everyone wants me to be," he said. "I'm a 20-year-old that isn't expected to live like other 20-year-olds, and I can't do the things that as a 20-year-old I would normally do. Because everything I do is magnified, changed and looked at differently.

"I have to live up to standards that ... I wouldn't say they're unfair, but they're hard."

In September 2006, the NCAA made McElrathbey an exception to its long-standing rule against extra benefits, allowing him to receive aid in the form of a trust fund set up for Fahmarr, and also daily care provided by the coaches' families. Fahmarr is still in Ray Ray's custody.

McElrathbey was celebrated for his willingness to juggle academics, athletics and parenthood. He was named Person of the Week by ABC's "World News"; he received the Keith Jackson Award of Excellence on the ESPN College Football Awards Show and appeared at the Orange Bowl in Miami to accept the FedEx Orange Bowl-FWAA Courage Award.

Davis said McElrathbey isn't going public with his side of the story because he "doesn't want them to badmouth his name if he wants to play football somewhere else."

Davis wonders whether all this will have negative recruiting repercussions for the Tigers.

"There's a lot of guys they recruit in Atlanta," he said. "People are going to ask: 'What happened to Ray Ray?' His high school (Mays High), they've got a lot of talented guys coming out of there."

Said Bowden: "Graduating in three years with all of his responsibilities will be an outstanding accomplishment. Our staff will help him in his future endeavors, whether it be from a football career or business career standpoint."

http://www.charleston.net/news/2008/mar/09/ray_ray_finished_playing_tigers33202/

[Collier11]

IM missing your point, Bowden bent over backwards by all accounts and the guy is going to graduate, he helped set up a charitable fund to help out with his family expenses, etc...I realized he would have liked to play another year but if he is done with school, why should they pay for him another year? Obviously it would have been a nice gesture to let him finish out at Clemson but I can see both sides honestly

[SoonerTroll]

cold blooded, what a joker. very respectable of the player to not comment because i would have ripped tom tom.

[Collier11]

I can see SCS's point.
Coaches bend over backwards to help keep the skilled yet socially challenged ( :rolleyes:) problem players. Why not bend bend over backwards to do something for a good guy?

That is my point though, by all accounts TB <----- :) has helped out this kid quite a bit. As I said I can see both sides but I dont think it is deplorable for him not to renew if the kid is graduated

[sooneron]

Don't we have an extra scholly laying around? Looks like Jarboe's is open. Get the guy in there for special teams or something. A football player graduating in 3 years is practically unheard of in D1. He should be kept on the team as anything if not an example to the other players about keeping their priorities straight and being responsible.

[schlanker]

If a player can finish getting their bachelors a year early and get a year or 2 of graduate school for free while using up the rest of thier eligibility more power to them. Taking this kids scholly is a bad move. I think it will hurt Clemson in recruiting.

[yermom]

very odd.

it's too bad you can't still transfer without penalty if you've graduated

[RedstickSooner]

Coaches don't ever pull schollies because the kids graduated, or are too close to doing so.

Jeeze, if this was about academics, you wouldn't see things like Chubby Crosseyed Boy taking nothing but ballroom dance his final semester at the University of Spoiled Children.

Academically talented players routinely start grad school on their football schollies. In fact, this very issue came up a couple years back, because they wanted to revise NCAA regs so that kids who graduated could freely transfer for grad school without losing any eligibility or playing time.

Coaches shot the change down. I, and others on the boards, condemned them for their obvious bias against the scholar part of scholar-athlete.

The kid's schollie was yanked, pure and simple. While it sounds like he had a rocky time, it sure doesn't sound like he had a rocky enough time to justify being booted off the team. That's what happened, in a nutshell. When a coach offers a player a schollie, the general understanding is that the schollie will remain good until one of two things happens:

1) The kid's eligibility expires.

2) The kid is kicked off the team for disciplinary reasons.

Neither of those two has happened, as far as I can tell. Coaches that pull schollies for reasons other than those two are, basically, scumbags. The only thing that keeps me from condemning TB for this is that the article is a bit murky on the situation -- and as others have pointed out, TB has tried to do a lot for the kid in the past.

While I'd like to condemn TB, and my instinct is to do so, I'd like to know what else is going on here first.

[Leroy Lizard]

The purpose of the scholarship is to earn an education. He is set to graduate in August, so the scholarship served its purpose.


Neither of those two has happened, as far as I can tell. Coaches that pull schollies for reasons other than those two are, basically, scumbags.

Scholarships used to be four-year deals, with a scholarship remaining valid as long as the player attempted to perform in his sport. Then DKR and his brethren decided to deploy cruel and dangerous practice techniques to run them off.

Coaches like the one-year deals because it gives them power over the players. It isn't just Tommy Bowden that is to blame here.

[Collier11]

The purpose of the scholarship is to earn an education. He is set to graduate in August, so the scholarship served its purpose.



Scholarships used to be four-year deals, with a scholarship remaining valid as long as the player attempted to perform in his sport. Then DKR and his brethren decided to deploy cruel and dangerous practice techniques to run them off.

Coaches like the one-year deals because it gives them power over the players. It isn't just Tommy Bowden that is to blame here.

well sh*t, if LL is agreeing with me then I have to change my mind ;)

[snp]

Coaches don't ever pull schollies because the kids graduated, or are too close to doing so.

Yes they do.



Jeeze, if this was about academics, you wouldn't see things like Chubby Crosseyed Boy taking nothing but ballroom dance his final semester at the University of Spoiled Children.

He already had his degree but needed to take at least 1 class to still play, Jason White did the same exact thing.



Academically talented players routinely start grad school on their football schollies. In fact, this very issue came up a couple years back, because they wanted to revise NCAA regs so that kids who graduated could freely transfer for grad school without losing any eligibility or playing time.

Coaches shot the change down. I, and others on the boards, condemned them for their obvious bias against the scholar part of scholar-athlete.

Hear, hear. That was crap. One of my biggest complaints against the NCAA.



The kid's schollie was yanked, pure and simple. While it sounds like he had a rocky time, it sure doesn't sound like he had a rocky enough time to justify being booted off the team. That's what happened, in a nutshell. When a coach offers a player a schollie, the general understanding is that the schollie will remain good until one of two things happens:

1) The kid's eligibility expires.

2) The kid is kicked off the team for disciplinary reasons.

Neither of those two has happened, as far as I can tell. Coaches that pull schollies for reasons other than those two are, basically, scumbags. The only thing that keeps me from condemning TB for this is that the article is a bit murky on the situation -- and as others have pointed out, TB has tried to do a lot for the kid in the past.

While I'd like to condemn TB, and my instinct is to do so, I'd like to know what else is going on here first.

No, scholarships are renewed on a yearly basis. Coaches run players out of town because they get buried in the depth chart, including Stoops. Clemson went above and beyond what is expected out of them. They set up a trust fund, allowed him some leniency with missing football, gave him a free degree and offered him a job.

I'm sure this will seem harsh and callous but he was a reserve RB and he wasn't helping the team out. Maybe he should focus on graduate school and taking care of his brother instead of holding out hope for getting a few carries in garbage time. He's pretty much the opposite of Carl Pendleton. Pendleton was a productive member of the DL but he decided to forgo his football career since he decided there are some things in this world that are way more important than football.

[Leroy Lizard]

Agreed. Clemson and Tommy Bowden did all the things needed to get the player his degree. With a degree in hand, the player can now get a job and support himself to attend graduate school, just like the rest of us schmucks did.

[Remembering Tom Stidham]

This thread should never have been started. The inceptor must have been having a bad day.

[olevetonahill]

Just because he's got his degree doesn't make it anymore of a selfish low class move. No matter how some of you try to justify it. Of course considering the low life inbred feedback some of you hillbillies have left I can understand how it makes sense to you.

I aint Innerbred , You take that back !:rolleyes:

[olevetonahill]

Oh and Im a "****ing Hillbilly " to you Mr and dont you ferget it .:cool:

[sozo]

very odd.

it's too bad you can't still transfer without penalty if you've graduated

My first thought was can he transfer without penalty,able to play next year, because of the scholarship being yanked?I've got to come down on the side of the player here.

[Soonerfan88]

The GA offer was made in good faith and oversigning was never the issue. Once again the propaganda machine was spinning the incomplete story. This latest article backs up several of the message board/blog comments I saw concerning Ray Ray's lack of commitment contributing to the decision.


By Tony Barnhart | Wednesday, March 12, 2008, 08:38 AM

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

One of the things you learn after being in this business a while is that stories are rarely as simple as they appear.

Take the case of Clemson’s Ray Ray McElrathbey.

The Atlanta native was one of the feel good stories of college football in 2006 when, as a scholarship player at Clemson, he took on the additional task of raising his little brother Fahmarr, who was 11 at the time. Clemson petitioned the NCAA to make an exception its extra benefits rule in order to set up a trust fund to take care of Fahmarr. That trust fund reportedly has over $100,000 in it. Fahmarr has also received care from the families of assistant coaches.

McElrathbey has been on athletic scholarship for three years and has played very little because of injuries. He is scheduled to graduate this summer, a notable achievement for which he deserves all of the praise in the world.

Now Clemson and coach Tommy Bowden have made a difficult decision for the good of the program. Ray Ray can remain at Clemson and pursue another degree as a graduate assistant coach but not as a player with a football scholarship. McElrathbey has been promised financial aid by athletics director Terry Don Phillips if he chooses that option. If McElrathbey, who has two years of eligibility remaining, wants to play somewhere else, Clemson will help him find a new school. But the Tigers are four deep with quality tailbacks. McElrathbey is not going to get on the field.

Bowden has been portrayed as this cold, unfeeling person who is cutting Ray Ray loose simply because Clemson needed the scholarship. It’s an entertaining narrative that pushes all the emotional hot buttons. But it just isn’t that simple.

The fact is that McElrathbey has been known to have issues with the coaching staff and was less than consistent when it came to attending team functions. The time had come for a change in the relationship for the good of the entire team. Bowden is not going to say anything publicly because he doesn’t want to embarrass the kid. So he’ll take the heat.

George O’Leary told me a long time ago that coaches have to be willing to tell players things they don’t want to hear. If a player is not going to get on the field, he needs to know that and needs to be given some options. Then it is up to the player to choose the right option for him.

The easiest thing to do would have been to keep McElrathbey on a football scholarship. No fuss. No muss. No controversy. But it would not have been the best thing for the Clemson football program as a whole.

In the real world, people have to make tough decisions that are going to be unpopular. This is one of those.

[Collier11]

The GA offer was made in good faith and oversigning was never the issue. Once again the propaganda machine was spinning the incomplete story. This latest article backs up several of the message board/blog comments I saw concerning Ray Ray's lack of commitment contributing to the decision.


By Tony Barnhart | Wednesday, March 12, 2008, 08:38 AM

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

One of the things you learn after being in this business a while is that stories are rarely as simple as they appear.

Take the case of Clemson’s Ray Ray McElrathbey.

The Atlanta native was one of the feel good stories of college football in 2006 when, as a scholarship player at Clemson, he took on the additional task of raising his little brother Fahmarr, who was 11 at the time. Clemson petitioned the NCAA to make an exception its extra benefits rule in order to set up a trust fund to take care of Fahmarr. That trust fund reportedly has over $100,000 in it. Fahmarr has also received care from the families of assistant coaches.

McElrathbey has been on athletic scholarship for three years and has played very little because of injuries. He is scheduled to graduate this summer, a notable achievement for which he deserves all of the praise in the world.

Now Clemson and coach Tommy Bowden have made a difficult decision for the good of the program. Ray Ray can remain at Clemson and pursue another degree as a graduate assistant coach but not as a player with a football scholarship. McElrathbey has been promised financial aid by athletics director Terry Don Phillips if he chooses that option. If McElrathbey, who has two years of eligibility remaining, wants to play somewhere else, Clemson will help him find a new school. But the Tigers are four deep with quality tailbacks. McElrathbey is not going to get on the field.

Bowden has been portrayed as this cold, unfeeling person who is cutting Ray Ray loose simply because Clemson needed the scholarship. It’s an entertaining narrative that pushes all the emotional hot buttons. But it just isn’t that simple.

The fact is that McElrathbey has been known to have issues with the coaching staff and was less than consistent when it came to attending team functions. The time had come for a change in the relationship for the good of the entire team. Bowden is not going to say anything publicly because he doesn’t want to embarrass the kid. So he’ll take the heat.

George O’Leary told me a long time ago that coaches have to be willing to tell players things they don’t want to hear. If a player is not going to get on the field, he needs to know that and needs to be given some options. Then it is up to the player to choose the right option for him.

The easiest thing to do would have been to keep McElrathbey on a football scholarship. No fuss. No muss. No controversy. But it would not have been the best thing for the Clemson football program as a whole.

In the real world, people have to make tough decisions that are going to be unpopular. This is one of those.

what do ya know, I was getting ripped by some of you on this and it turns out I was right that TB had done all he could do...thats why you need to research the story before you start calling people names and being a jerk!