June Jones makes the right move

Taylor, Taylor, Taylor… let’s take a ride in the time machine… Like this one, for example…







The year is 1998. The Hawaii Rainbow Warriors have capped off another losing season in perfect 0-12 fashion. The losing streak stands at 18. Thousands of miles away, six games into the 1998-1999 NFL season, June Jones was tabbed as the interim head coach of the San Diego Chargers after Kevin Gilbride got the boot. Jones proceeded to lead his team to 3 wins and 7 losses. Not great, but in a league where coaches are recycled like the plastic with a number 1 on it, he definitely had the chance to be a head coach or coordinator with the Chargers or some other team in the NFL.

Fast forward to the job offer — Hawaii and June Jones meet up. They offer him the job. They were 0-12. An 18 game losing streak. He’s a pro head coach and/or coordinator for the National ego Filled League (corny, I know, but it illustrates my point). This isn’t USC we’re talking about. This isn’t Ohio State or Florida or Oklahoma. It’s an 18 losses in a row Hawaii Rainbow Warriors team.







What do you think people were saying then? The exact same thing you’re saying now, Taylor. I quote: “Jones may have made the biggest mistake of his professional career by taking the coaching vacancy over at SMU.” 9 years ago you might as well have inserted the word Hawaii.

Jones likes a challenge. He’s proved that by taking on the Hawaii job and now the SMU job. He even said himself he was only intrigued by the openings at SMU and Duke.

But after the wear and tear of “no, we don’t want to come to the islands and play you” to a football budget that could barely take care of a single college student, Jones couldn’t take it any more. So he’s headed to greener pastures.

I think it’s a great move for him. He’s headed to the home of Doak Walker and Eric Dickerson. He’s headed to possibly the most intense high school football state in the country — Texas. Bigger budget. Bigger recruiting base. More opportunities to face top flight competition.

On top of that, Jones will already have a solid offense to work with. This year, the Mustangs ranked 58th in total offense. SMU’s star QB Justin Willis (Passing 2944, 25 Rushing 699, 3) will be a junior. So will 2nd leading rusher (526, 4) James Mapps and leading receiver (889, 9) Emmanuel Sanders. Their 3rd leading rusher (458, 4), RB DeMyron Martin, will be a senior.

And, lest we forget, these Mustangs lost 3 rough games in OT and dropped a tough 43-42 loss to Rice. That means they were 5 regulation points from being 5-7. Sounds a lot better than 1-11, I’d say. If he can get a solid defensive coordinator in there and catch some speedy recruits to bolster a poor defense, that may just happen.

Bottom line…

It’s not about a big contract. It’s not about the departure of Colt Brennan and Davone Bess. It’s not about who’s better between the WAC and C-USA. Jones needs a change. And he’ll get it. And he’ll be happier at SMU. And I can’t get mad at a guy who makes a tough decision that makes him happier.

He’s got a long road ahead of him. But, hey, that’s what they said when he took over at Hawaii.