Worst era of a coach

[Rebel10]

Jones doesn't compare to Bennett, Caven, Rosley or Gregg. Nothing against these coaches as they all had huge barriers to success but they didn't win. And James Steward, HN Russell, Chalmer Woodard, and Bill Meek had pretty crummy records at SMU.

Hayden Fry's record was not exceptionally noteworthy, either. Good guy, terrific coach... but he was also canned in favor of another bust - Dave Smith.

June Jones coaching SMU to 4 bowl games with 3 wins is the best in our football history.

Wasn't the competition less in the JJ era. Just asking.

[DiamondM75]

Jones doesn't compare to Bennett, Caven, Rosley or Gregg. Nothing against these coaches as they all had huge barriers to success but they didn't win. And James Steward, HN Russell, Chalmer Woodard, and Bill Meek had pretty crummy records at SMU.

Hayden Fry's record was not exceptionally noteworthy, either. Good guy, terrific coach... but he was also canned in favor of another bust - Dave Smith.

June Jones coaching SMU to 4 bowl games with 3 wins is the best in our football history.

But after 6 years, we should be sniffing at BCS bowls, not barely making it to minor bowls.

[SMU 86]

Jones doesn't compare to Bennett, Caven, Rosley or Gregg. Nothing against these coaches as they all had huge barriers to success but they didn't win. And James Steward, HN Russell, Chalmer Woodard, and Bill Meek had pretty crummy records at SMU.

Hayden Fry's record was not exceptionally noteworthy, either. Good guy, terrific coach... but he was also canned in favor of another bust - Dave Smith.

June Jones coaching SMU to 4 bowl games with 3 wins is the best in our football history.

Wasn't the competition less in the JJ era. Just asking.

Yes, it was against a lower level of competition and no I wouldn't say June Jones is the best coach we have ever had given his record against teams with winning records. But I think he is a good coach.

[ponyte]

Wow! It took TCU longer than 6 years to make it to BSC bowls and our expectation was to go from a much low quality program than TCU to BSC status in less time than TCU. One has to love the expectations.

[max the wonder dog]

Wow! It took TCU longer than 6 years to make it to BSC bowls and our expectation was to go from a much low quality program than TCU to BSC status in less time than TCU. One has to love the expectations.

I think fans would be content with 6 or 7 wins at this point in JJ's career at SMU if we were seeing some improvement in recruiting from year to year. That's just not happening.

On another topic, in defense of Hayden Fry -- he played a tougher schedule in the SWC than June did in CUSA, and there wasn't a bowl on every corner that would take a school with a .500 winning percentage. Fry went on to success at Iowa.

Most important, he had the courage to bring Jerry Levias to SMU. And for that, he deserves our respect and gratitude.

[Stallion]

TCU finished seasons ranked in Top 25 in the 3rd(2000), 5th(2002) and 6th years(2003) of the Franchione/Patterson era and if you want to focus on only Patterson then in 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006. Top 25 is a major milestone even if TCU was locked out of BCS

[MustangStealth]

Wow! It took TCU longer than 6 years to make it to BSC bowls and our expectation was to go from a much low quality program than TCU to BSC status in less time than TCU. One has to love the expectations.

Yes, it is crazy to expect us to be playing in a BCS game by now, but it's not crazy to have expected more than where we are at.

TCU went 1-10 the season before Franchione got there, and then the next year went 7-5, including playing in a New Year's Eve bowl game against a PAC-10 team.

They followed that up with 8-4, 10-2, 6-6, 10-2 and 11-2.

We have lost at least 5 games every season under Jones.

[Rebel10]

TCU finished seasons ranked in Top 25 in the 3rd(2000), 5th(2002) and 6th years(2003) of the Franchione/Patterson era and if you want to focus on only Patterson then in 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006. Top 25 is a major milestone even if TCU was locked out of BCS

Sounds like it took less than 6 years to get where they needed to be in rankings.

[jimhagle]

The bottom line is we should be more like TCU by now and we aren't and playing A&M,Baylor and TT,etc. tougher.

[mustangxc]

I am appreciative of everything June Jones has done for SMU and think he has not done anything to deserve being let go. However, to argue that we are on the same path TCU was 6 years into their turnaround is ludicrous. We both ended the seasons in minor bowl games, but at least they had double digit winning seasons and finished ranked inside the top 25. The minor bowl was due to their being in a non-aq conference and poor bowl tie-ins not the quality of their teams. I agree that we should see some better results than what we are seeing. That said, we are 1 game into this season so I am still optimistic about the season.

[PlanoStang]

TCU finished seasons ranked in Top 25 in the 3rd(2000), 5th(2002) and 6th years(2003) of the Franchione/Patterson era and if you want to focus on only Patterson then in 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006. Top 25 is a major milestone even if TCU was locked out of BCS

We sniffed top 25 after beating TCU in 2011. We have gone from perennial bottom 10 to
mediocre aka middle of the pack, and two 8 win seasons in the last 4 years. If JJ had been
smart he would'nt have spoiled us. Should've taken us slowly like Ron Meyer to a first bowl
game after 5 years.

[Rebel10]

TCU finished seasons ranked in Top 25 in the 3rd(2000), 5th(2002) and 6th years(2003) of the Franchione/Patterson era and if you want to focus on only Patterson then in 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006. Top 25 is a major milestone even if TCU was locked out of BCS

We sniffed top 25 after beating TCU in 2011. We have gone from perennial bottom 10 to
mediocre aka middle of the pack, and two 8 win seasons in the last 4 years. If JJ had been
smart he would'nt have spoiled us. Should've taken us slowly like Ron Meyer to a first bowl
game after 5 years.

You think JJ would have taken us to a bowl game in the old SWC like Ron Meyer did? Or you think Ron Meyer would have this team rockin due to the inferior competition of CUSA?

[ponyte]

If JJ had the recruiting opportunities that Meyer enjoyed, then we would have been top 25 and in a BSC bowl by now.

[Rayburn]

This is the quandary of June Jones.

On one hand he took SMU out of the wilderness and into four bowls where the Mustangs won three smashing victories and could (should) have claimed four wins in all.

On the other hand SMU football seems to have plateaued and wanders in the mediocre netherworld between good teams and bad.

A decade ago I would have cut off my right arm and laid it at JJ's feet for a 3-1 bowl record. I'm grateful for the success JJ has achieved but hungry to move further up the ladder.

[mustangxc]

Melvin Udall:

What makes it so hard is not that you had it bad, but that you're that pissed that so many others had it good.