This Week is Make-or-Break Time for the BYU Cougars
Two weeks off, two weeks on…that’s how it has seemed to go for the Cougars this football season.
Two average games to start the season, two mind-blowing shutouts after that, and two head-scratching snoozefests after that.
But with games remaining at TCU, at Air Force, and at Utah, BYU can ill-afford to continue to play inconsistent football.
The [...]
June Jones makes the wrong move.
I like June Jones. I like his style of offense. I like how he takes chances on players like Colt Brennan that made past mistakes. I like how he turns guys like that in to a respectable football player, and how he takes a group of guys like that and makes them an exciting team. However, Jones may have made the biggest mistake of his professional career by taking the coaching vacancy over at SMU. Here is my reasoning:
First, SMU is a once great program in shambles. The SMU Mustangs were 1-11 this year and 0-8 in Conference USA. Yeah, they were winless in conference play…in the West Division of the conference…the division who’s third place team was Tulane (4-8). That’s some form of bad I don’t even want to explore.
Second, Jones made Hawaii an exciting school to coach. Who is to say that the next QB he has below Brennan won’t turn out to be just as much of a dominator? He has built Hawaii up with almost nothing. It has taken time to implement his system there, but it has worked. Now, he must rebuild with even less than he had when he started at Hawaii.
Third, moving to another non-BCS school is an error. Urban Meyer won a BCS bowl with Utah. He built Utah to be a power house team, and when he left, he went to Florida. A great opportunity for anyone! Now, Jones may not have won a BCS Bowl like Meyer, but he still could get a head coaching job at a BCS school looking for new leadership. Even if that school didn’t have a good football team, it would still be a step up from SMU.
Finally, the WAC is weaker than Conference USA. Conference USA sent six teams to bowl games; UCF, East Carolina, Memphis, Southern Miss, Tulsa, and Houston. The WAC sent four with Hawaii, Boise State, Fresno State, and Nevada; Fresno was the only one who won while Tulsa and East Carolina (over Boise State) pulled of wins. So, with a weaker conference, it should be easier to go undefeated, and repeat what they have done this year in order to go to another BCS game in order to redeem themselves from this year.
June, it is easy to understand why you want to leave. You were beat pretty badly in the Sugar Bowl, and now your team is no longer under the radar. They will be expecting more from you now. But to leave for SMU? What were you thinking?
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I would disagree - June Jones left Hawaii because the Universtiy refused to make the changes necessary to compete with larger, better programs. He didn’t leave because they got housed in the Sugar Bowl. I think he’s inheriting a QB in Justin Willis with a much higher ceiling than any of the the guys that would have tried to take over for Brennan (Graunke, Funaki, etc). There is no reason he can’t bring in much better recruits to Texas (Hawaii was a nightmare to recruit to from what I’ve heard - because of the cost to fly kids across the world to see your school) He maxed out the potential at Hawaii - did a lot with practically nothing. His players at SMU will be lightyears ahead of Hawaii talent-wise. I think they compete for a conference title as soon as 2009. I think it was great move for SMU and for Jones.
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