June Jones resigns

[Basketcats]

Originally Posted by alieberman

June Jones is an idiot.

I don't understand why you think that. I think I read somewhere that UH alotted $50K for recruiting last year. How in the heck is someone supposed to recruit on a budget like that?

UH has made promises in the past to upgrade facilities and continues to do so. Jones has been there and probably doubts the committment of UH to do so. SMU has the facilities, the money/backing and most importantly the drive to get back to a somewhat decent program. UH simply can't compete with that.

All in all I think it is a good move for Jones. If an administration is unwilling or unable to provide the tools necessary to win then the program is going to reach it's ceiling (which it probably already has) and go no further.

[ZONACAT]

The Pony Express is back!!!!!

I'm very excited about this news!!!!

[tstein7240]

Originally Posted by alieberman

June Jones is an idiot.

Hawaii is a wonderful place... but, they have failed on all the promises made to him. Heck, the Heisman candidate QB joked that they didn't have enough soap in the showers.

Personally, at his age - I would have retired and lived off the endorsements in the state of Hawaii. But, if he is looking for a challenge - he sure as hell found one.

[BlueMikey]

Originally Posted by Basketcats

SMU has the facilities, the money/backing and most importantly the drive to get back to a somewhat decent program. UH simply can't compete with that.

But what's the point of being at a school who wants to put out the money if they would never be able to do anything with it?

SMU will never be the program it was. No major conference will have them, and Conference USA will never be a good conference, will never be able to pull football ratings. And Memphis has only been able to stay up in basketball because of established success before CUSA turned to crap. I mean, half the people under 20 when they read this on ESPN will probably think, "I didn't know there was a Southern Missouri University."

I'm willing to bet that no CUSA team will ever make it to a BCS bowl (and it was a much better conference when Tulane went undefeated). And for all the crying one might want to do about the facilities at Hawaii, you can do that there.

I don't have a single problem with June Jones taking the money, but that's essentially what this is. Trading in a program that can actually do things in the national spotlight for hundreds of thousands of dollars to disappear off the face of the college football map.

[Basketcats]

Originally Posted by BlueMikey

But what's the point of being at a school who wants to put out the money if they would never be able to do anything with it?

SMU will never be the program it was. No major conference will have them, and Conference USA will never be a good conference, will never be able to pull football ratings. And Memphis has only been able to stay up in basketball because of established success before CUSA turned to crap. I mean, half the people under 20 when they read this on ESPN will probably think, "I didn't know there was a Southern Missouri University."

I'm willing to bet that no CUSA team will ever make it to a BCS bowl (and it was a much better conference when Tulane went undefeated). And for all the crying one might want to do about the facilities at Hawaii, you can do that there.

I don't have a single problem with June Jones taking the money, but that's essentially what this is. Trading in a program that can actually do things in the national spotlight for hundreds of thousands of dollars to disappear off the face of the college football map.

In all honesty I think you're right. No CUSA team has or probably ever will amount to much. There is nothing wrong with someone trying to help rebuild a program so it can at least garner a bit of respect within it's conference. Who knows, maybe Jones won't be able to "hide" there and his name will draw some attention back to SMU with regards to recruiting.

Only time will tell.

[BlueMikey]

Yeah, but no one knew who June Jones was before, like, October 2007. Lute Olson to Arizona this isn't. Does he even have recruiting ties? When you spend that much time never recruiting off the islands, I can't imagine you know a single high school coach anywhere, let alone Texas.

[Itamicbomb]

Originally Posted by BlueMikey

Yeah, but no one knew who June Jones was before, like, October 2007. Lute Olson to Arizona this isn't. Does he even have recruiting ties? When you spend that much time never recruiting off the islands, I can't imagine you know a single high school coach anywhere, let alone Texas.

June Jones was an NFL coach and one of the first to use the run and shoot offense. Going to Hawaii was disappearing off the college map, too.

[Basketcats]

Originally Posted by BlueMikey

Yeah, but no one knew who June Jones was before, like, October 2007. Lute Olson to Arizona this isn't. Does he even have recruiting ties? When you spend that much time never recruiting off the islands, I can't imagine you know a single high school coach anywhere, let alone Texas.

I watched him coach the Falcons and the Chargers. He and upper management butted heads all the time. He is known. Trust in that.

[tstein7240]

Originally Posted by BlueMikey

Yeah, but no one knew who June Jones was before, like, October 2007. .

ummm... wasn't he an NFL head coach and very, very prominent NFL QB coach???

Originally Posted by BlueMikey

Does he even have recruiting ties? When you spend that much time never recruiting off the islands, I can't imagine you know a single high school coach anywhere, let alone Texas.

Kinda true...
- Jones was a coach with the Houston Oilers - so he knows that area well
- I think UH has 4 commits this year from the Houston area.
- His DC Greg McMackin came with him on the interviews. I am assuming he will join his staff in Dallas. McMackin was formerly a coach at Texas Tech

Yes, it will be tough to initially break through (SMU has forever had a tough time with the DallasISD - likely the intercity mentality vs. SMU-snob factor). But a big name coach, NFL ties, history of high power offense should help


For a school like SMU - that needs to engage with fans again and BE EXCITING - give me JJ over Franchonie, Larry Coker and the others being mentioned.

[BlueMikey]

I dunno tstein. I guess just be careful, simply wanting something to happen doesn't mean that it will, and I think there are a lot more signs than not that point to SMU not really being much more than they are right now.

Originally Posted by Basketcats

I watched him coach the Falcons and the Chargers. He and upper management butted heads all the time. He is known. Trust in that.

I dunno, I mean, I didn't know he was an NFL coach. *shrug*

I don't follow it close enough to know but what they put on Sportscenter, but June Jones certainly hasn't been anywhere in the spotlight for incoming recruits, I guess was my main point.

I kind of look at UTEP. Conference USA, Texas school, and they hired a coach with a lot more name recognition and mainland college coaching experience than June Jones. Sure, UTEP poked its head up for a little bit, but it came back to Earth pretty quickly.

[ZONACAT]

Blue Mikey,

You have the wrong impression about the SMU program. TCU doesn't have have half the support that SMU has and look at that program. It might not compete for a National Title, but it is a sleeping giant of the non-BCS schools.

SMU has tradition, powerful boosters, facilities and now a proven head coach. That is usually the recipe for positive results.

[tstein7240]

Originally Posted by BlueMikey

I kind of look at UTEP. Conference USA, Texas school, and they hired a coach with a lot more name recognition and mainland college coaching experience than June Jones. Sure, UTEP poked its head up for a little bit, but it came back to Earth pretty quickly.

Are you comparing UTEP to SMU... or Mike Price to June Jones. If the later, I think JJ has more going for him that Price did when he came to UTEP. Heck, Price was trying to salvage a career... Jones is leaving at the top of his. Big, big difference.

If it is comparing UTEP to SMU as far as a football program goes, you need a history lesson. SMU was once one of the top programs in the country (originally back in the Doak Walker days, then fast forward to the Eric Dickerson/Craig James Pony Express days).

The big problem w/SMU is the death penalty ruined the program for 2 decades. But as Zonacat said - it has everything in place to (a) become prominent again (b) move to a better conference in the near future...

great location in the city of Dallas, great campus, alums waiting patiently for a good team to support, already a great game day experience (Tailgating on the Boulevard is a B-L-A-S-T - even if people rarely step foot inside the stadium for the game)...

Like you said - wanting something doesn't make it happen. But, before you speak about why they can't succeed, you should know a little history (ie: JJ was an NFL head coach )

[BlueMikey]

I know all about SMU's early 80s championships and the death penalty.

I'm not saying that UTEP is exactly SMU or anything. But it is certainly similar. Price was not exactly far removed from the pinnacle, getting named Alabama head coach, of his career when UTEP picked him up.

You're telling me I need to know all this stuff, that June Jones was an NFL coach, and that SMU won championships in the early 80s (when the Southwest Conference was relevant), but what does that have to do with recruits? Incoming recruits now were born after even the death penalty ended. June Jones might tell them that when he recruits, but I think the response of most recruits will still be, "Who?"

All I know is that if I'm a recruit, and I'm looking at schools, what matters more to me is that I won't be in a big conference in front of a big crowd, I'll be at a school that most people have no idea where the hell it is in Texas, that I'll never have a game on television outside of Dallas, and that I'll be playing poor competition, not really ever getting a chance to showcase my talents. That I'll be playing for a coach who needed one of the easiest schedules in recent memory just to get waxed at his first BCS game.

Screw Doak Walker. He isn't playing for them right now. Out of all the teams that have won a national championship in the last, oh, 60-70 years, none is as irrelevant right now as SMU, not even close.

[Class of 1990]

Why doesn't TCU have support ?

Could they become major rivals ?

Bring back the SWC.

[tstein7240]

Originally Posted by Class of 1990

Why doesn't TCU have support ?

Could they become major rivals ?

Bring back the SWC.

TCU actually has pretty good support. But no where close to the support SMU had pre-death penalty. And no where close to the pent up support waiting for good football on the Hilltop.

They are already decent rivals... if SMU becomes a Top-40ish type program...it can turn into a very nice rivalry (with the thought that both are fairly small schools - thus not large alumni bases to build the hatred. It would probably end up a Dallas vs. Fort Worth type thing )

One "rumor" I heard in my office yesterday that was a possible "snag" in the JJ contract (causing the delay) was admission standards for players. SMU has some incredibly strict standards considering the are NOT a Stanford or Duke. Supposedly, they have relaxed them a bit...