Wisconsin to Quintez Cephus: you’re cleared to come on back and be a Badger; Cephus: wants to be a Badger (includes press conference link)
Press conference link is here.
By Michael A. Lough
The Sports Report
centralgasports@gmail.com
If Quintez Cephus was really tired, it didn’t look that way at his 5 p.m. press conference, outside in downtown Madison.
He looked like somebody ready for practice.
Cephus surprised millions with what appeared to be a simple decision: return to Wisconsin as a student and football player. Few expected him to come back to the school that expelled him, and then took more than two weeks to reinstate him after his acquittal on sexual assault charges.
The team issued a statement announcing his return.
Eligibility is an issue, although he is a student in good standing. He wanted to return to his all-conference all-academic status, but little is clear about restoring his football eligibility immediately.
He worked out for a few months in Arizona, and appears to have remained in football shape. But he hasn’t taken a hit in a game since the second half of the 2017 season.
There will be more coming in the next few days from Wisconsin coaches and players.
How quickly can he return to form?
What drives Cephus (from Oct. 21, 2017)
Earlier Monday: Cephus reinstated
A week ago, Quintez Cephus listened to his attorneys criticize the University of Wisconsin for dragging its feet in reinstating Cephus after his acquittal on sexual assault charges.
And several teammates stood behind him in support. Since Cephus’ was proclaimed innocent on Aug. 2, the school and chancellor Rebecca Blank have been under fire for expelling Cephus last spring – a fairly normal part of a disciplinary process – and not working quicker to clear Cephus to return to school.
Related stories
Attorneys claim Wisconsin dragging its feet in reinstatement process
Is Cephus headed back to Wisconsin? Campaign has started
Social media reaction strong, emotional
Cephus talks with Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel
Cephus acquitted (w/video, interviews, the week of coverage)
Monday, that all changed with the school’s morning announcement that the case had been reviewed – with information it didn’t have during its Title IX inquiry and ensuing expulsion – UW was immediately clearing and reinstating Cephus.
Jamie Dickey was Cephus’ head basketball coach at Stratford. He left coaching for a few years ago and is back, now at his alma mater Brentwood as an assistant football coach and administrator.
"This entire journey has been one of hardship and struggle," Dickey told the Milawukee Journal-Sentinel, "but it has also been one of perseverance and determination and just relying on his faith and knowing that God has a bigger plan for him.
"It has been amazing the patience that he has had, and the discipline. It is amazing just how mentally tough he has been through this whole thing because it has been hard on all of us.
The Journal-Sentinel story, linked below, has many details, including Cephus visiting Dickey over the weekend and frying his cell phone when he jumped into a pool with it in his pocket.
The school issued the statement around 11 a.m. Monday.
Plans abruptly changed for Cephus, who then headed for an airport so he could hold a 5 p.m. press conference in Madison.
It is then Cephus is likely to announce his plans, which Dickey thinks will be to return to Wisconsin. His academic status is publicly unknown, but attorney Stephen Meyer told CBSSports.com that “"The institution that expelled him and suspended him, (was) really his own football lifeline,” unless he sat out another year.
He is now reportedly a student in good standing at Wisconsin.
State Journal: Advocate responds
State Journal editorial, Monday
State Journal editorial, weekend