The Ballad of Jason Gwaltney

Text Size A A A

Jason Gwaltney is no longer playing football for anyone, but he's still screwing up football teams:

Free safety Quinton Andrews, 19, of Miami, Fla., was charged Saturday morning with obstructing an officer, Chief Deputy Al Kisner with the Monongalia County Sheriff's Department said Tuesday. Former Mountaineer running back Jason Gwaltney, 20, of Morgantown, was charged with underage consumption of alcohol, speeding and failure to produce an operator's license. According to the criminal complaint, Gwaltney was pulled over after a deputy clocked him traveling 36 mph in a 25 mph zone.

Now might be a good time to review the Ballad of Jason Gwaltney, a man an enthralled Ohio State fan once called "Maurice Clarett with a brain." Not so much. Though I subscribe to Rivals.com and believe in the usefulness of recruiting sites and the rankings they provide, the odd story of a very large, very weird running back from New York provides a cautionary tale. Described as "a man amongst boys," Gwaltney was one of those kids who seems sprung fully formed from the womb, as if he had burst from Zeus' head with a particularly violent stiffarm. So it was a small shock when Gwaltney committed to then-insignificant West Virginia just a couple months into the recruiting cycle.

Things settled down for a while, though Gwaltney announced that he'd take some trips in the fall. He did this, going to UVA, OSU, MSU, and USC. On his USC trip he "committed" to USC, then decomitted, announcing he was open. While this was going on he was running over and around but mostly through the poor bastards on Long Island assigned to stop him. This they did not do so much. He promised a six-year-old with a broken leg he would break the Long Island career record for rushing yards and give him the game ball. This he did. He was Pete Carroll's #1 guy in the immediate aftermath of USC's destruction of OU for the national title. He was hot stuff.

When the season was over, Gwaltney announced he would announce -- it's a meta-announcement! -- his actual commitment at the US Army All-American game. And it was around this time a mysterious poster who was absolutely obsessed with Jason Gwaltney started popping up on recruiting message boards across the internet, irate that the manbeast had not been granted the hallowed fifth star and bringing tall tales of Paul Buynan-like productivity.

The poster? Jason Gwaltney himself. When this was revealed, Gwaltney took to visiting the boards of USC and OSU fans -- his two finalists -- and telling both that they led. Rumor has it that he was doing the same thing to both coaching staffs.

Gwaltney attended the Army Bowl, drawing raves from the various gurus in attendance... then did not announce. He announced that he would announce when he announced later. A meta meta announcement. On January 17th, Gwaltney dropped West Virginia. On the 18th, he got his precious fifth star. On the 31st, Newsday publishes an article titled "Gwaltney Picks WVU," citing a source close to the family; Gwaltney is incensed. The next day, Gwaltney commits... to WVU. Rivals names him the #1 impact freshman of 2005.

His impact: 45 carries, 186 yards, a midyear injury, and one bigass boot right off the team and onto Nassau Community College's. Months later, he owes Nassau $3,000 and has no academic credits worth transferring, and rumors of any possible return are certainly kiboshed now that Gwaltney's gotten not only himself but an actual member of the Mountaineer football team in trouble. A sad story of a career gone awry, and one the recruiting sites could have noticed if they had bothered to pay attention to the fact that he's completely bats.

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

6-06-2007 @ 7:01PM

jeff said...

Gwaltney has behaved badly and apparently lost some tremendous opportunities as a result. But he was 17 or 18 at the time of his recruiting and even now is only twenty years old. In other words, he's just a kid, cut him a little slack. And by the way, WVU has had some down years but has NEVER been insignificant (well, maybe from '76 - '79) and if you really believe in your statement, you are just smart enough to repeat Gwaltney's errors.

6-07-2007 @ 11:22AM

andrew said...

jeff, sorry to say it, but west virginia was, if not insignificant, not very significant before the last 2 seasons. do you know how many seasons WVU has had with fewer than 4 losses in the past 20 seasons? 5, with 2 of them in the last 2 years. the other three came in 1988, 1989, and 1993. bowl games between 1993 and 2005? 3 gator, 2 carquest, 1 each of insight.com, music city, and continental tire. 8 bowl games, but all are mid-tier at best, with a 1-7 record.

and sure, gwaltney is still just a kid at the tender age of 20, but his actions seem more immature than others with similar ability and profile. my guess is that he probably has far too high an opinion of himself and thinks that gives him license to do as he pleases, others be damned.

6-07-2007 @ 2:38PM

excessenthalpy said...

In the United States, the legal age of adulthood is 18. Therefore, anyone who is 20 years old is, by definition, not "just a kid."

6-07-2007 @ 3:25PM

Paul said...

What's the difference between Jason Gwaltney and, sayyyyy, Steve Slaton and Patrick White? Class, character and humility. But cut Gwaltney some slack? No way! If he were 13 or 15, sure, then he's just a kid. But he's 20 - capable and responsible for his actions (or inactions) and paying for them. There are "kids" younger than he is pushing sand with a HUMMV looking for booby traps. When he's pumping iron in the yard of some lockup, we'll see how much slack he deserves. He needs to stand like a man, take his medicine, and point his life in the right direction. I'm more worried about what he's going to cost society than whether he'll ever carry a ball again. Are we going to add Quentin Andrews and Jason Gwaltney to the list with Travis Garvin, Alvoid Mays, Chris Henry and Pacman Jones as embarrassments?

6-08-2007 @ 10:09AM

jmagu30192 said...

and the new embarrassment arrives this fall in the form of "daddy" Devine, the "brain surgeon" from FLA. But never fear, Mr. Devine will not jeapordize WVUs pitiful under the NCAA minimum APR ratings. WVU and South Florida are the only Big East schools (football and basketball) that are under the NCAA minimum. WVU is an embarrassment to the Big East and should be dumped, but the conference can't since they barely have enough members to form a conference (since the powers left a few years ago).

6-09-2007 @ 2:04AM

kbowman said...

Wow, I hope Jason gets some help so he can get his life back in order. Yes, he should be responsible for his actions as he is an adult. Sounds like he's missed out on some great opportunities at WVU. I'd like to hear down the road, that he is back in school and perhaps, someone might give him another chance at football.

6-09-2007 @ 12:34PM

billyrupp said...

Is WVU still a school?

6-11-2007 @ 10:53PM

ADAM said...

I actually worked at North Babylon H.S. I saw many talented RB's there. I came there as Barry Baker, "The Touchdown Maker" entered as a freshman. He was a beautiful sight to behold on any court or field. Besides his grades, I saw a another problem with him. He didn't have that instant acceleration gift. You need that to be successful as a RB in college. Anyway, he didn't make it. There was Jason Hickson before him. He riminded me of Gayle Sayers. There were a couple of good RB's after him. ...And then Jason Gwaltney. This is truly a pity. Is it the high school coaching staff's fault? His guardian's, or just his own fault? What a shame. If he could have knocked 2/10 off his 40 speed, he could have been amazing. Built like pro at the age of 18, as strong as some too. Good looking... this always helps with pro endorsements. How many years of college ball are mandatory to get to the pros? What would you do if someone told you that you had to go to work everyday for say two years, go to part time night school, and stay out of legal trouble. For this you would be given a winning 40 million dollar Mega Millions ticket. Would you do it? Could you do it? Barring a career ending knee injury, this guy probably would have gone pro. Worst case scenario, he at least would have gotten a partial or full college education and some time to grow up and mature - the "right" way. Friends and family out there. Can anyone help him? Perhaps he could give you 20% of his first 4 yrs earnings. That's a small price for him to pay for saving his life.

6-19-2007 @ 9:25PM

WVeers47 said...

It's time I think to put the Gwaltney issue rest and get on with the upcoming season. He's out, that's all there is to it and in my opinion, shouldn't be allowed to play on any team in the future. Oh, for billyrupp's comment (dtd Jun 9). Yes, WVU is a university, DEAL with it.

6-26-2007 @ 9:57PM

You are right. Jason is not the first, nor will he be the last major talent to blow it. When he is 40 yrars old and working in construction (not that there's anything wrong with construction), he will have his regrets. C'est la vie...

7-07-2007 @ 11:09AM

Kahuna said...

Jason Gwaltney joins Joe Don Looney, Brian Davis, and Maurice Clarett along with a host of other as the Best Player That Never Was Club.

7-09-2007 @ 2:49PM

anonymous said...

Jason Gwaltney was never a beast. I grew up in Long Island during his "reign" and i was not impressed. His stats were padded and he played against no competition. His big advantage was his size, which he did not know how to use. he was a big kid who played like a scat back....trying to shake/dance instead of just hitting the hole. yea he got big numbers but seriously when he's feed the ball 30+ times a game, even in blowout games, its going to happen. I saw a game of his, where it was 45-0 at half time and the coach came out with the same starters, no subs throughout the game. and did his carries go down, hell naw! It plain and imple Suffolk football is soft and their numbers are padded. theres usually a handfull of goodteams but they look alot better because they play smaller teams and they run up the numbers. the most imrpessive player in jason's league that year was a player by the name of Alton Lucas. West Babylon. If anyone saw the North Babylon vs West babylon games then they would not dissagree. In conclusion theres a reason why seperate record books are kept for Nassau and Suffolk counties, every other year suffolk has some "amazing" back who never makes it....

8-02-2007 @ 6:06PM

Roger said...

Alton Lucas???????? I definitely agree about NB running up the score and padding Jason's numbers. I dont know of any decent schools NB played against. Jason was good, but not as good as he was made out to be. I think he got a taste of what it takes to play major college football and realized that he had a lot of work to do.At that level those that work the hardest usually reap the benefits. I think his size carried him through against much weaker competition in high school. Maybe he pissed his pants when he saw what real competition is like--who knows. The one positive in all this is that his half brother got a scholarship to WVU,(Scooter Berry) I think he is still there. Scooter was and is definitely not a Div.I player, but WVU wanted his brother so there you go. I also agree that WVU was or at least has not been significant in college football for some time. I am glad to see them in the national spotlight now and I hope that they stay there for years to come. Lastly Alton Lucas had a good game against NB but pretty much sucks otherwise--sorry