Not sure about what the turn of events was, but events have turned, as multiple outlets are reporting that backup (but likely to be heavily used) TE Mike Ragone is currently with the team for the summer, and likely back for the fall.
Notre Dame football spokesman Brian Hardin confirmed Monday afternoon that the 6-foot-4, 250-pound senior-to-be from Cherry Hill, N.J., is in summer school working out with his teammates and that he is expected to be on the active Irish roster come fall.
Given past precedent at ND in cases concerning the happy weed, there almost HAD to be extenuating circumstances in this instance. Ragone was discharged with some community service and probation-type action, but nothing serious. The ResLife process is sealed under lock, key and God’s Wrath, so we’ll never really know what goes on there – but it’s good news for the Irish this Fall as depth at TE is very young and inexperienced. Assuming he stays healthy (and off the dope), Ragone will be a key cog in the BK Offensive machine this Fall.
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Pat
Could the extenuating circumstance be the Kelly administration?
Rocket89
Excellent news.
Ragone is my breakout player of the year, or was…and now is again!
30 receptions perhaps? Sounds like a lot, but you never know.
domer.mq
The extenuating circumstances probably have to do with the “not guilty” verdict he apparently got.
Pat
People found “not guilty” do community service and pay fines?
Perhaps Coach Kelly is taming the notoriously overzealous ResLife lion.
Vairish84
When reached for comment, Kyle McAlarney said “WTF?”
The Biscuit
i meant that there must have been extenuating circumstances around the arrest, what went down, etc. because the kid said to cops that the wiz-eed was his. so for him to get a ‘not guilty’/be discharged with just community service, and to be reportedly back with the team, something else must have been going on. because had it been just like KM, he’d have been gone for the semester. unless all kinds of things (like the law and the entire culture at ND) have changed. which is unlikely.
Pat
I’m surprised you wholesale preclude the possibility that something has changed under this new Brian Kelly regime.
domer.mq
Pat, it’s possible, but given that normally the HC has almost no say in who can play or not play until ResLife determines what they think on the matter, we figure it’s more likely that something happened with ResLife and the legal system first. Though I recall some discussion in January of the possibility that Kelly would be granted more control on such things. No idea if that’s true or not, and I doubt it.
Pat
I think it is at least equally plausible, if not more so, that this is no coincidence. Other concessions have been made, like the training table for instance.
The Biscuit
plausible, yes, but given the draconian hold ResLife has had on things, i find it unlikely. besides, ResLife and Brian Kelly have literally zero official influence on the court system, where he was discharged with just community service. unless you’re saying that Kelly is rigging the court system, i’m not sure how him being in charge could change anything there.
trey
Is Louis Nix on campus yet? If he is, I wager he had something to do with it.
Pat
With all due respect, gentlemen, what is clouding your vision: idealism or naivete? A well-to-do family hired a lawyer who was going to go for tit for tat over every imaginable technicality with a county prosecutor, who, rather than fight it in court and, as is often done, offered a deal. While Ragone being found “not guilty” would better fit your narrative, one is in no way exonerated if one has to do community service, pay a fine and be on probation for a year’s time. What the family lawyer did was save Ragone from having a misdemeanor charge on his record.
So, the question again is: Why did ResLife go easy on him? If it is a change in their approach, it is a welcome one.
domer.mq
Pat,
The reslife thing is in major flux right now. I’m sure you’ve seen that Bill Kirk is gone. His position has been eliminated entirely. The new guy in charge of Student Affairs, Doyle, is apparently making a lot of changes. It’s possible that either this case “fell through” during those changes, and Ragone managed to escape the wrath of Reslife b/c the flux is keeping everyone so busy, or Reslife is really changing, and Ragone is the beneficiary of such change.
The Biscuit
you’re going to call me naive after you’ve just completely changed your argument? you were talking about Kelly’s (supposed) increased influence on ResLife and now you’re talking about rich families with lawyers. i didn’t state anything definitive – i said that i found it more likely. do you just enjoy being contrarian?
what i do find extremely unlikely is that the kid gets off with a discharge and barely a slap on the wrist from the liz-aw, and ResLife gives him a lenient/non-existent penalty such that he’s back on the team, all in the face of his being super guilty here. kid pleaded not guilty, there’s a reason. he was let off by the court, there’s a reason. he was let off by ResLife, there’s a reason. while it’s possible that the cops/courts and ResLife sticklers all of a sudden just let things go in South Bend, while it’s possible that he has a great lawyer and Brian Kelly has influence that no other coach has ever had with ResLife at ND, ever, and while it’s possible that Urban Meyer could potentially run a clean program, all of these things are unlikely. They would all require huge shifts by multiple groups. Whereas an alternative doesn’t require all those crazy shifts: kid wasn’t guilty.
Pat
Domer, I didn’t know ResLife was in flux. That explanation, too, is entirely plausible. I appreciate your modesty.
Biscuit, you still actually believe Ragone was innocent? That answers one question at least: Naive it is. My argument hasn’t changed one iota. I simply believe it is possible Kelly has started to exert control over football player discipline from the notoriously over-the-top ResLife folks. I felt it necessary, unfortunately, to explain that a family with means is able to obtain a lawyer to keep their kid’s record clean — but it by no means implies, as you hold, that he is actually innocent. You are suggesting it is more likely that Ragone is innocent than ResLife was given a reason to go easy on him. You have it backwards.
SDI
Pat–put yourself in the Res Life Dep.’s position. Kid pleads not guilty and charges are dropped reduced, etc. How do they prove that he has done anything wrong, except maybe be found in a car with someone else’s pot? When that exact situation happened to Demetrious Jones, he also was not punished significantly by Res Life. And I don’t think he was rich or necessarily had a wizard of an attorney. KMac was driving stoned. Yeatman was reportedly driving some type of vehicle drunk. These are different and potentially deadly offenses. Something may have changed at Res Life, but I don’t really see any proof of that–just your speculation. I have no problem with speculation, but you can’t call everyone who disagrees with your speculation naive–it’s ok to just disagree.
Pat
SDI, I think those are all very fair points. I’d clarify your last point, however, to say that I was merely calling naive the insistence that Ragone was innocent of any and all wrong doing. The facts simply don’t support that view in lieu of the fine, etc. I feel that the argument for his innocence is being pursued in denial that ResLife even COULD have gone easy on a kid.
The Biscuit
But Pat, you don’t KNOW that. I don’t KNOW that he’s ‘innocent of any and all wrongdoing’, but you don’t KNOW that he’s guilty, of ANYTHING AT ALL, either. I was also speaking about it legally – he wasn’t found Guilty, so he is, by defn, innocent. could’ve been a plea deal or a warning or whatever, but fact is he has no record of being found guilty. so, innocent. does that mean the kid didn’t do anything wrong in any way whatsoever? i don’t know.
Pat
The kid is doing community service, paying fines and is on probation. You honest to goodness cannot use some intuition and make some inferences as to what has happened here? I mean, if you want to play it that tight, we know almost NOTHING and sure have to take a lot of things on faith or dumb luck alone. I also don’t know, to an absolute certainty, that the sun will rise tomorrow either. But I’m foolishly counting on it! Geez.
The Biscuit
What are you freaking talking about? You made the jump from your own inferences and assumptions to Brian Kelly somehow getting the sentence reduced and ResLife to let him off. I didn’t make that leap.
I am going on facts. Fact is that he is not guilty legally. And that ResLife isn’t handing down a punishment of death.
I mean, you can make the ridiculous examples but so can I – because, you know, since Demetrius Jones was let off way back when when they found him with Weed in his car, it must mean that he had a fancy lawyer and Charlie Weis was able to help him avoid trouble with ResLife, right? So Chaz had broken down the barriers and gotten RL to lighten up then, correct? Except that RL was his biggest complaint when he left, so we know that isn’t true. But, by your logic, that’s what had to have happened. Turns out DJ had a friend take the fall. Maybe Ragone did too? Maybe not. Maybe there was an illegal search, maybe there was a deal, maybe a bajillion things. I am not saying that there is a definitive answer, I’m saying there’s not unless you were there or know a cop or something. You’re claiming that this is ‘too much of a coincidence’ and that, therefore, BK must have more pull in the system now than his predecessors. I don’t see how that leap is any more logical than a million other leaps in other directions. Your point isn’t illogical, it’s just improbable given the history here, the changes in RL, and the million factors that could play in that none of us have any clue about. Quit reaching. You’re sounding like Taylor Bell.
The Biscuit
by the way, do i think Mike Ragone smokes weed? of course. do i care? not really. i only care that he got caught, and that it’s stupid to do so when 1. you know it’s against the rules and 2. it whacks out your ability to, you know, inhale oxygen and run and be fit and shite. again, i’m not arguing that he didn’t DO anything, i’m arguing that it’s unlikely that BK’s influence is what got him off all around.
Pat
Hey, the entire time, I only maintained it was plausible Kelly has received some more say over disciplinary matters. It has seemingly been a hang-up in recent years, and we all know other concessions have been made with this new administration coming in. The timing also seems interesting — but it’s true, it’s not necessarily the case; it could, in fact, be mere coincidence.
I, too, couldn’t care less if Mike Ragone smokes or not. It seemed to me you were suggesting ResLife’s inaction only served to prove his innocence — which, with all the available information, certainly seemed like a stretch. Your concession that perhaps he may have actually flubbed up at least seems entirely more reasonable. Thankfully ResLife didn’t throw the book at him.