One word pivotal to QB’s ND fate

SOUTH BEND — The absence of one six-letter word in the charging
document, that had Notre Dame quarterback Tommy Rees’ name all over it
Thursday afternoon, did more to blur the 19-year-old’s foot-ball
future than clarify it.

And that’s a good thing if you’re Rees.

Had the Irish starting QB in 16 of the past 17 ND games been formally
charged with a felony — and there was an open window to do so —
his arrest in the early morning hours Thursday outside an off-campus
home on Notre Dame Avenue would likely have been the start of his
career’s epitaph.

At least the part of it that took place at Notre Dame.

As it stands, the junior-to-be was charged with four misdemeanors,
three of which are of the most serious, Class A variety (two counts of
resisting arrest, one count of battery), and one that is a Class C
(underaged drink-ing). Rees was originally arrested on, among other
things, suspicion of battery on a police officer, which would have
been a felony.

The tipping point between felony and misdemeanor can involve things
like intent and the degree to which the officer is injured. The police
narrative mentions the officer got his wind knocked out and suffered
scrapes and pain.

The Lake Forest, Ill., product, who turns 20 on May 22, bonded out of
the St. Joseph County Jail late Thurs-day afternoon, hopped into the
passenger seat of a red sedan without acknowledging questions from the
media and sped off into an tsunami of uncertainty.

Teammate Carlo Calabrese, a 21-year-old linebacker from Verona, N.J.,
was also arrested in connection with the Rees incident after police
responded to a report of a loud party.

Calabrese, who bonded out of jail at around 3:30 a.m. Thursday, has
not been formally charged but is ex-pected to be sometime today. He
was arrested on suspicion of disorderly conduct in response to Rees
being ar-rested.

Rees allegedly blew a 0.11 percent reading in an alcohol breath test,
according to court documents. Calabrese blew a 0.12 reading, according
to court documents. The legal limit for operating a motor vehicle in
Indiana, for comparison’s sake, is 0.08 percent.

Both players were embroiled in battles for starting positions when
spring practice concluded April 21.

“I am aware of last night’s incident involving two of our football
players,” Notre Dame third-year head football coach Brian Kelly said
in a statement.

“I am, of course, very concerned, given the nature of the allegations,
but I am still gathering information. I’ll withhold judgment until I
can collect all the facts and speak with both Carlo and Tommy.”

If you think there’s a one-size-fits-all solution for the coach,
either your naïveté is showing, you’ve never raised teenagers, or
both.

The oversimplified answer to where all this is headed starts and ends
with Michael Floyd.

The former Irish standout receiver and current Arizona Cardinal was
arrested for drunk driving in March of 2011, his third alcohol-related
misdemeanor during his time at ND.

Skeptics chastised Kelly and the school when Floyd didn’t receive a
punishment from Notre Dame’s discipli-nary arm, the Office of
Residence Life, that was similar to previous cases involving ND
student-athletes and stu-dents in general, namely an in-season
suspension.

But seven months prior to Floyd’s third strike, Notre Dame’s
student handbook — Du Lac — was updated to reflect a philosophical
shift that was years in the making.

Perhaps the most significant change in the 2010-11 handbook from its
earlier iterations was that initial proba-tion no longer came with an
automatic suspension from extracurricular activities — student
government, student media, retreat leaders and, yes, football.

“Probation is actually probation now,” Brian Coughlin, associate vice
president for student affairs/student de-velopment said in an
interview with the South Bend Tribune last fall. “That means if you do
something else, there will be further consequences.”

There were other significant changes, notably in how DUI and other
alcohol-related offenses were defined and how incidents off-campus
were treated as opposed to those that occurred on-campus.

The Rev. Tom Doyle called it an “accident of history” that such
sweeping policy changes came on his watch. Doyle, a former walk-on
football player at ND under coach Lou Holtz, took over in June 2010 as
vice president for student affairs.

But it was announced earlier this week that Doyle will leave his post
at the end of July, to be replaced by Erin Hoffmann Harding, effective
Aug. 1. It’s a move that could further complicate Rees’ direction if
the Res Life part of his case hasn’t played out by then.

No one receiving a Notre Dame paycheck would publicly call Floyd’s
case a referendum for a more progressive approach for future cases,
but in reality, it certainly expanded the possibilities.

Res Life essentially let Kelly leverage a zero-tolerance approach last
summer to test whether Floyd’s pleas, of wanting to use the DUI arrest
as a catalyst to change his life, were indeed sincere.

After Floyd met every once of Kelly’s still-unspecified stipulations,
he was allowed back on the team with no restrictions, recorded a
school-record 100 catches on the field and a gleaming 3.4 grade-point
average off it, completed his course work in December and made a date
to walk with his class at graduation later this month.

It was the best-case scenario and then some.

But it may or may not be so easy to connect those dots to Rees. The
overriding factor that Kelly said coaxed him to take the path that he
did last spring and summer was that he was convinced on a daily basis
that Floyd wanted to change.

Some people who find trouble have a lone regret of getting caught.

This is the biggest question Kelly must wrestle with before his next
prepared statement — where is Rees’ heart?

It’s certainly not the only question. He also has to ask himself why
Floyd’s ordeal wasn’t enough of a wake-up call not only for Rees, but
for those who could have influenced him not to drink Wednesday night.

He has to ask himself why Rees turned what could have been a
relatively easy charge to move on from — un-derage drinking — into
three additional charges, one of which teetered on being a felony.

And a felony is looked upon in a much different light by Du Lac than a
misdemeanor.

“If a student is charged with a felony, the University reserves the
right to take summary action and temporarily dismiss the student,” the
student handbook says. “Similarly, the University may take summary
action to tempo-rarily or permanently dismiss any student convicted of
a felony.”

Ten springs ago, Notre Dame expelled four players — Justin Smith,
Abram Elam, Donald Dykes and Justin Smith — after being charged with
felony rape.

When the legal system played out, Elam was convicted of sexual battery
and placed on probation for two years. He was acquitted of the more
serious charges against him — criminal deviate conduct and conspiracy
to commit rape.

Dykes was tried and acquitted. Charges were dismissed against Smith
and Crawford before either went to trial.

A felony charge could have taken the ball out of both Kelly’s and Rees’ hands.

Calabrese, barring any further incidents, will likely be battling
fellow senior Dan Fox for the starting Will line-backer spot when
training camp opens in August.

Rees’ path is obscured by many more layers. At the bottom of it all is
Kelly’s charge that his four-quarterback dead heat would likely find
separation this offseason based on the actions of those players
between the end of spring and the start of fall training camp.

Rees’ next move may be his most important. And in that vein, Floyd did
provide a winning template. His first action was not to
investigate the viability of parachuting into the NFL’s supplemental
draft, nor did he reportedly ever entertain thoughts of transferring.

His first moves were to own his mistake and vow to grow up.

It’s the perfect place for Rees to start.