Ray Ray finished playing for Tigers

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."

Reach Larry Williams at lwilliams@postandcourier.com.

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