It took long enough, but we finally have an answer on the “ND 5,” or the five Notre Dame football players suspended from the team while undergoing investigation for academic malfeasance. It’s been a few weeks since news of this latest off-the-field drama hit the news cycle. And it’s been a cloud hovering over the 2014 Notre Dame football season since early August, but now we have an answer.
“a source with knowledge of the situation told the Chicago Tribune on Thursday morning the five players — cornerback KeiVarae Russell, linebacker Kendall Moore, defensive end Ishaq Williams, receiver DaVaris Daniels and safety Eilar Hardy — are unlikely to play the rest of the season as part of rulings handed down by a school “honesty” committee, which oversaw honor code hearings for the five players.
That source corroborates what the website Irish Illustrated reported Wednesday, that the five are not likely to play this season.
Beyond that almost everything else, including whether the school was going to vacate previous victories, was still unclear. The players are still in school but are not practicing or playing in games as the process plays out. Also, there is still an appeal process the players can go through before their rulings are finalized. That could be contributing to a lack of information coming from the the players, their families and the school.
Okay, so Notre Dame football fans are still left with plenty of questions. There is a lot of speculation about the future left to be done. There is the issue of vacating wins; possibly the entire 2012 national runner-up season. But then again nobody cares about past victories being vacated, nor should they. It’s not a legitimate punishment. It does not deter any kind of malfeasant behavior.
Now know that Notre Dame football will be without their best wide receiver, their best defensive back (who was once rated the best NFL potential cover corner in the upcoming draft) and well as a few substantial role players.
It hasn’t affected the Fighting Irish thus far; at all. But we’ll see what happens as the schedule gets tougher. Things “get real” real fast when they take on #1 Florida State after the UNC warm-up. Here’s our preview of Saturday. And a look at the good, bad and ugly through the first 5 games of the season.
Paul M. Banks owns, operates and very often writes The Sports Bank.net ,which is partners with Fox Sports. Read his features stories in the Chicago Tribune RedEye edition. Listen to him on 1620 The Zone. Follow him on Twitter (@paulmbanks). His work has been featured in hundreds of media outlets including The Washington Post and ESPN 2