When I saw the headline “Bowden says McElrathbey has left Clemson” on ESPN.com this afternoon I started racking my brain. The name rang a bell but I just couldn’t place it.

Was it from a mock draft? Was it from one of the “student athletes arrested” headlines that pop up from time to time?

Then I started reading the story and it hit me. I’d seen him featured on ESPN Gameday a couple years ago. Ray Ray McElrathbey is a running back for the Clemson Tigers. He missed 2007 with a knee injury and played in 13 games as a special teamer in 2006. But he’s more well-known for having taken custody of his younger brother Fahmarr two years ago due to his mother’s drug addiction.

Now McElrathbey, a junior from Atlanta, was leaving the team to get his studies in order so he can graduate in August. Coach Tommy Bowden told ESPN McElrathbey might transfer somewhere else where he can play more or go directly to graduate school.

It took a lot of work for McElrathbey to make it this far. Clemson applied for a waiver from the NCAA that allowed the school to set up a trust fund to cover the brothers’ living expenses – and raise $100,000 to help them out. The NCAA also allowed coaches and families to provide Fahmarr with rides to and from school.

And the elder McElrathbey has had his issues too. He was suspended for at least four practices in spring 2007, according to ESPN, because of academic concerns. But the sociology student made the fall semester honor roll while taking 21 hours of classes.

It appears as though Bowden may have hastened the departure by not renewing McElrathbey’s scholarship. “We’re pretty good at running back right now,” Bowden told the Charleston Post and Courier, while not confirming or denying the accusation.

If that is the case, then shame on Bowden. McElrathbey deserved the chance to finish out his football career.

That said, the school gave McElrathbey a fantastic opportunity and he appears to have taken that ball and run with it quite well. Best of luck to him no matter what his next stop might be. He proved himself a stand-up person taking over as his brother’s chief caregiver. And he pulled himself up by the bootstraps from a tough situation, used college football as an opportunity to better himself, and appears well on his way toward a solid future. Well done, young man. Zoneblitz applauds you.