I just got an email from the DC

[perunapower]

I have little esperience with DC reporting on SMU athletics. Is there any reason to believe this is legit more than one of our "insiders"?

Mark Norris wouldn't publish it if it didn't come from either Turner's mouth or Orsini's mouth. He's a pretty reliable person from my dealings with him.

But I do not know that. I am just on an email list and was only passing on the info. No information that comes from me is from any reliable source. My wife reminds me of that daily.

Ok, just because it came from you, it must be full of inconsistencies and half-truths.

[mrydel]

I have little esperience with DC reporting on SMU athletics. Is there any reason to believe this is legit more than one of our "insiders"?

Mark Norris wouldn't publish it if it didn't come from either Turner's mouth or Orsini's mouth. He's a pretty reliable person from my dealings with him.

But I do not know that. I am just on an email list and was only passing on the info. No information that comes from me is from any reliable source. My wife reminds me of that daily.

Ok, just because it came from you, it must be full of inconsistencies and half-truths.

Yes and no.......I mean maybe.

[StallionsModelT]

A carbon copy? In what way? I guess I'm just not seeing this the way you do. And I am in favor of June Jones much more than Fran, Barnett, or Coker. The guy is fresh off of a BCS bowl game appearance, albeit a bad one. Just b/c Paul Johnson burned us doesn't mean it has to happen again. I think some of you are reaching to connect the two together.

[papawasamustang]

Its a very similar situation & it can happen again.
I'm not in favor of Coker either.

I think SO is being played just like before.

I appreciate SO trying to make a big splash with PJ & JJ.
However, I personally like others better than both of the primary targets
so far.

Again, if the 72 hr timeline is correct, that's just to much time for other things to develop IMO. Obviously SO & LS have been having on going talks for sometime now. Again, my gut is he's playing us.

[Billy Joe]

As usual, most posters on this board know nothing and post nonsense.....at least that is what my gut is telling me.

[SWC2010]

[

Yes and no.......I mean maybe.

Are you sure about "Yes and no.......I mean maybe."

I mean that's really out on a limb, mrydel...

[StallionsModelT]

Hey maybe you're right. I just don't think Orsini is going to get played twice. I think he's smarter than some of us give him credit for and that he's got us in the June Jones sweepstakes with a legit chance to land him. But hey, I'm an optimist so what do I know.

[Mustangsabu]

Hey maybe you're right. I just don't think Orsini is going to get played twice. I think he's smarter than some of us give him credit for and that he's got us in the June Jones sweepstakes with a legit chance to land him. But hey, I'm an optimist so what do I know.

I agree.

I would feel confident that SO has a legit chance to land JJ, but it might not happen, we can't control who comes in and offers him a job. I certainly appreciate that although we could have hired Fran or Coker in December that SO went after the best available, even if you lose recruiting time at least we know that are AD is committed to the best around.

[papawasamustang]

I do give SO alot of credit & I really appreciate what he's trying to do for our football program.

I really think regardless of who is hired SMU FOOTBALL wins !

I remain extremely impressed with the Doh hiring & I think he will do the same again.

I'm just not a big fan of PJ, JJ or Coker.

[ponyboy]

Remember we couldn't even talk to him until after the bowl game. All contact to that point had been with his agent only. I like this timeline, plenty of time for him to decide but not enough that says we'll wait on him forever.

[ebrooks11]

Hey maybe you're right. I just don't think Orsini is going to get played twice. I think he's smarter than some of us give him credit for and that he's got us in the June Jones sweepstakes with a legit chance to land him. But hey, I'm an optimist so what do I know.

I agree.

I would feel confident that SO has a legit chance to land JJ, but it might not happen, we can't control who comes in and offers him a job. I certainly appreciate that although we could have hired Fran or Coker in December that SO went after the best available, even if you lose recruiting time at least we know that are AD is committed to the best around.

I totally agree, the posters on this board griping that we should haved hired Fran a month ago instead of waiting on a better coach are the same guys who took the fat girl home from the bar every night and not seeing if they could do any better. Orsini is using my (when I was single) approach of locking down a backup and looking for upgrades and if nothing pans out then you always have the back up. Tell the fat girl that you really like her but you just cant take her home right now. You have a few friends (a hotter girl) that you are meeting later. If the hotter girl came with her boyfriend then you get an E for effort and you still have the fat girl who would just love to go home with you.

[Water Pony]

His team played less than 24 hours ago. JJ can now turn his attention fully to his future which will not be a Hawaii. He has max'ed out his impact and it can't get better either financially or performance wise.

SO has played this hand (not a strong one as we all know) well. The deadline in DC makes and is reasonable for us, even if it doesn't meet JJ's timeline.

In any case, by the weekend, we will know our coach.

[SMU Football Blog]

Where in your analogy are you jeopardizing your reputation and your short-term and long-term future? SMU football will hopefully last more than one night.

Of course, an equally bad analogy is my buddy in high school that didn't go to the prom because he wasted too much time and deemed all the remaining girls unworthy. SMU doesn't have that option. Well, I guess it does, but I prefer not to think about that.

[friarwolf]

Hey maybe you're right. I just don't think Orsini is going to get played twice. I think he's smarter than some of us give him credit for and that he's got us in the June Jones sweepstakes with a legit chance to land him. But hey, I'm an optimist so what do I know.

I agree.

I would feel confident that SO has a legit chance to land JJ, but it might not happen, we can't control who comes in and offers him a job. I certainly appreciate that although we could have hired Fran or Coker in December that SO went after the best available, even if you lose recruiting time at least we know that are AD is committed to the best around.

I totally agree, the posters on this board griping that we should haved hired Fran a month ago instead of waiting on a better coach are the same guys who took the fat girl home from the bar every night and not seeing if they could do any better. Orsini is using my (when I was single) approach of locking down a backup and looking for upgrades and if nothing pans out then you always have the back up. Tell the fat girl that you really like her but you just cant take her home right now. You have a few friends (a hotter girl) that you are meeting later. If the hotter girl came with her boyfriend then you get an E for effort and you still have the fat girl who would just love to go home with you.

Ummhh, I think we're the fat girl in this situation...........

[huskerpony]

I'm totally relaxed about the situation. Personally I hope that JJ does go somewhere else or my personal opinion that he's stays @ home @ UH. I just don't think he's a fit here.

I'm fine with the backup choices. I just wish in addition to Fran that Bowden & Barnett were being considered.

However, I can't imagine anyone not thinking about this looking like the PJ situation. Almost a carbon copy IMO.

Not the same at all. There is only one other school looking for a coach at this point, and there were more than 10 at the time of the PJ situation. PJ was involved in deep discussions with SMU, Duke, GT, and Navy, and may have even interviewed with Nebraska secretly before the Army game. (Osborne has refused to release names of 2 or 3 people who interviewed).

Even though there have been a few rumors about JJ and WVU, the quote from the agent was ONE college and an NFL team.


PJ was a much hotter commodity being pursued by many more people. I don't personally believe we got played that much either. GT got turned down by their first 3 or 4 choices and moved back to PJ. Had they picked up Edsall, it would have been between SMU and Duke, and we very well might have a coach Johnson right now. Of course he took that job. It's a better job. Of course he used our offer to bump the GT offer up once they moved back to him. Who wouldn't?


The concerning thing about the JJ situation is the NFL job because he is 3 years away from getting his full retirement benefits from the NFL. However, as we've discussed, he is not necessarily just after the money, and he has turned down offers to return to the NFL in the past. I think more realistically it boils down to whether Hawaii will increase his assistants' salaries, give him a recruiting budget, and promise to upgrade the facilities.