per Dallas Morning News.

https://twitter.com/BillNicholsDMN/statu...2319141888

Interesting. He did not appear to be his usual self on the sidelines first 2 games

Good Luck June. I wonder if it was a health issue because he really did not look well the last two games.

Two, somewhat contradictory quotes from the Dallas Morning News article:

Quote: “June’s decision to resign was his own, and we thank him for his efforts and wish him the best.”

Quote:A search committee was already being established when Jones announced his resignation.

(09-08-2014 09:38 PM)temchugh Wrote:  Two, somewhat contradictory quotes from the Dallas Morning News article:

Quote: “June’s decision to resign was his own, and we thank him for his efforts and wish him the best.”

Quote:A search committee was already being established when Jones announced his resignation.

Not really contradictory. Just means they arranged the details (my guess is that he negotiated to cancel the buyout) before it was announced publicly.

This article refers to "personal issues," which can sometimes be a smokescreen, but the timing of his resignation -- two games into the season, and less than 9 months after signing an extension -- certainly suggests his departure wasn't about on-field results.

Report on the radio is that his agent indicated he had felt that he accomplished his goals of restoring the SMU football program "for some time now". Obviously, I think he had that feeling before they failed to score a touchdown in two games to start this season.

(09-09-2014 10:02 AM)I45owl Wrote:  Report on the radio is that his agent indicated he had felt that he accomplished his goals of restoring the SMU football program "for some time now". Obviously, I think he had that feeling before they failed to score a touchdown in two games to start this season.

I wonder if he followed it up with "Whoops! Did I say that out loud?"

(09-09-2014 10:02 AM)I45owl Wrote:  Report on the radio is that his agent indicated he had felt that he accomplished his goals of restoring the SMU football program "for some time now". Obviously, I think he had that feeling before they failed to score a touchdown in two games to start this season.

Turned them around 360 degrees, as Jason Kidd would say

(09-09-2014 10:56 AM)07owl Wrote:  

(09-09-2014 10:02 AM)I45owl Wrote:  Report on the radio is that his agent indicated he had felt that he accomplished his goals of restoring the SMU football program "for some time now". Obviously, I think he had that feeling before they failed to score a touchdown in two games to start this season.

Turned them around 360 degrees, as Jason Kidd would say

Just to stir things up, the rumor from some connected SMU alums is that JJ was going to be fired today. The resignation and reduced payout was a way to avoid firing and make it clean. All rumors, nothing validated.

Given the grumblings from SMU supporters about June Jones before the season even began, the disastrous start of this season would merit a firing. SMU made a big mistake by bringing June Jones on for a 10-year, $20 million contract, but the lackluster recruiting was the biggest problem. To be successful at either SMU or Rice, you have to take advantage of the bountiful local high school talent, but reports were that June Jones was rather indifferent to recruiting. The lack of promising recruits doomed any hope that June Jones could properly turn SMU football around.

Never during the Rice-SMU series between Bailiff and Jones did I think SMU had better talent than Rice, so I was particularly disappointed when Bailiff would lose to JJ in 2009, 2010, and 2011.

I know a lot of Mustangs, and the prevailing opinion among them was that it was best for all to part company at this point. But I have not heard one of them express the opinion that hiring him was a mistake. I'd say their opinions are more along the lines that it was a great idea that has run out of steam.

I see two factors:
1) June never got the kind of QB he really wants for that offense. With people like Baylor and TT and A&M and Oklahoma running Air Raid variants, there is much more demand for those guys at the P5 level than there was a decade or two ago.
2) June's best SMU teams did a lot of it with defense and special teams. That actually seems to happen a lot for R&S teams. When you first convert, you have a lot of tight ends a fullbacks that you no longer need on offense, and their athleticism makes them good converts to defense. Then after a few years of not recruiting any tight ends or fullbacks, you no longer have any of those people to convert to help on the defensive side. This happened at UH in the Pardee-Jenkins era, and some of my SMU contacts think this happened uto June, too.

One other thing is that June has not looked particularly happy or healthy to me for a couple of years. I knew him when he was here with the Gamblers and later the Oilers, and he was always a more robust, larger than life kind of guy, and he hasn't looked that on the sidelines. I've wondered if there are lingering effects of his car wreck. A couple of my SMU contacts are very close to June and insist not, but I still wonder.

A different question would be whether they are disappointed with the way things worked out for his tenure. I would figure the answer would be yes because the expectations were probably much higher than the end results (and that's not to say they were bad - his hire is the only reason they've as much as sniffed at a bowl game, and it's only after the dissolution of the CUSA that Rice and SMU joined that Rice has reached a similar level of success). But, I think your friends are otherwise pretty level-headed.

(09-09-2014 09:27 PM)I45owl Wrote:  A different question would be whether they are disappointed with the way things worked out for his tenure. I would figure the answer would be yes because the expectations were probably much higher than the end results (and that's not to say they were bad - his hire is the only reason they've as much as sniffed at a bowl game, and it's only after the dissolution of the CUSA that Rice and SMU joined that Rice has reached a similar level of success). But, I think your friends are otherwise pretty level-headed.

I haven't really asked the question that way--haven't really posed any specific questions, just noted reactions--but I actually think the answer in most cases wold be no. The reason is that most of them are very close to the program--either played or otherwise directly involved--and they realize how truly dire the situation was before June. And a lot of them are relieved that he did it without buying any BMWs. I'd agree with the characterization of level-headed.

One interesting comment from a couple of them, "Without June, we would never have gotten Larry Brown."

I've also noted that his players--past and present--have been extremely vocal in supporting him. He seems to inspire an exceptional level of loyalty, same thing at Hawaii. He's taken some kids with questionable backgrounds and turned their lives around, and that makes for a lot of loyalty.

Obviously, you could ask a different group of supporters and get a different answer. My sample is probably differentiated by being generally closer to the program than most--and maybe also the level-headed part.

(09-10-2014 06:34 AM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  One interesting comment from a couple of them, "Without June, we would never have gotten Larry Brown."

I wonder if that will be the same at Rice with Rhoades in a few years. There's no question that Larry Brown's success put a ton more pressure on Jones to perform.

I don't know if SMU's ceiling is that high in football, but it does appear to me that they're looking at a strong possibility of an 0-12 season (maybe 1-11 at best but outside of USF at home, I'm not sure where that win could come from).

I've been saying forever that schools like Rice and SMU have stronger cases to become basketball schools than football (like Georgetown, Gonzaga, Marquette which are all bad examples I realize because they really don't try to compete in football at the higher levels but there are other schools you can compare them to that do play D1 football).

Although SMU and the city of Dallas to its credit seems to have embraced SMU basketball better than our city did when Rice seemed to be on the verge of turning around its basketball program. Maybe this time it will be different for Rice (and it will take longer for Rice to turn it around than SMU because we're not getting the high profile D1 transfers and I also believe our recruiting standards are tougher in basketball than SMU).

(09-10-2014 06:56 AM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote:  Although SMU and the city of Dallas to its credit seems to have embraced SMU basketball better than our city did when Rice seemed to be on the verge of turning around its basketball program. Maybe this time it will be different for Rice (and it will take longer for Rice to turn it around than SMU because we're not getting the high profile D1 transfers and I also believe our recruiting standards are tougher in basketball than SMU).

SMU definitely produced a lot more to justify outside fan support than Rice Basketball did under Braun. "On the verge of" doesn't count to anyone other than avid fans of Rice.

If we actually produce under Rhoades and do a decent job of marketing (which SMU did a pretty damn good job of from what I saw when I lived in DFW) I see no reason why we couldn't get the same level of interest that they did.

Re: JJ, sounds like a good time for both parties to part ways.

http://tamu.247sports.com/Bolt/AM-Assist...b-31045497

This article mentions David Beaty as a possibility for the SMU job (which I am assuming will be filled on a permanent basis by someone other than the interim guy starting at the end of the season).

(09-08-2014 07:14 PM)OldOwl Wrote:  Good Luck June. I wonder if it was a health issue because he really did not look well the last two games.

While it may have been health issues, a 25-year-old with a rock-solid constitution would have looked ill on the sidelines so far this season.

(09-09-2014 07:02 PM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  I know a lot of Mustangs, and the prevailing opinion among them was that it was best for all to part company at this point. But I have not heard one of them express the opinion that hiring him was a mistake. I'd say their opinions are more along the lines that it was a great idea that has run out of steam.

I see two factors:
1) June never got the kind of QB he really wants for that offense. With people like Baylor and TT and A&M and Oklahoma running Air Raid variants, there is much more demand for those guys at the P5 level than there was a decade or two ago.
2) June's best SMU teams did a lot of it with defense and special teams. That actually seems to happen a lot for R&S teams. When you first convert, you have a lot of tight ends a fullbacks that you no longer need on offense, and their athleticism makes them good converts to defense. Then after a few years of not recruiting any tight ends or fullbacks, you no longer have any of those people to convert to help on the defensive side. This happened at UH in the Pardee-Jenkins era, and some of my SMU contacts think this happened uto June, too.

One other thing is that June has not looked particularly happy or healthy to me for a couple of years. I knew him when he was here with the Gamblers and later the Oilers, and he was always a more robust, larger than life kind of guy, and he hasn't looked that on the sidelines. I've wondered if there are lingering effects of his car wreck. A couple of my SMU contacts are very close to June and insist not, but I still wonder.

Sounds like you're pretty close to June's situation ... but I'm not sure how the administration and fan base would have ever gotten over the recent Arizona State fiasco.

Dickerson had some interesting ways to get the Mustangs back on top.

http://sportsblogs.star-telegram.com/mac...s-tcu.html

(09-11-2014 06:44 PM)Dirty Owl Wrote:  Dickerson had some interesting ways to get the Mustangs back on top.

Not an example of one of the level-headed SMU alumns mentioned earlier. His backfield-mate is just as big a ****-up relative to the level-headed standard... not only that, but Craig James allegedly killed five hookers while at SMU.