The Jones Extension

[SMU2007]

he works a little, to promote smu.

Sounds like the perfect job for JJ!

/sarcasm

[Insane_Pony_Posse]

June aint retiring

That's not what I am hearing....

[Grant Carter]

somebody explain the overhead projector incident, please?

To his credit (though likely he was strongly encouraged by the AD or others) June spoke at a Mustang Club luncheon after the ASU debacle, but before Klemm had left.

During the Q&A a very handsome young man stood up and asked June whether he thought it was a risk to have one coach carrying the majority of the weight from a recruiting perspective (alluding to Klemm). June's response was that he had some materials prepared to address that and would show them at the end of the Q&A.

When the Q&A was complete he used an overhead projector to show a list of all the starters along with the coach that recruited them, then spent some time talking about how they had found each of the guys. Obviously since Klemm had only been recruiting for about a year, none of the starters were his. All of his signees were true freshmen (Duhe and Gottschalk) who you would not expect to be starting and clearly all of his highly regarded high school seniors that were committed to the team at that time were not going to be addressed by that list. So basically, this in no way addressed the question.

A common interpretation of the incident is that June was trying to spin that Klemm was not a good recruiter since he had not recruited any of the starters. I think a more likely interpretation is that he was saying that even without Klemm we have been able to put together the team you saw all year so do not worry that just one coach is irreplaceable. Obviously he was wrong, but that is how I interpreted it.

[ponyinNC]

somebody explain the overhead projector incident, please?

Not to be confused with the String Cheese Incident...

[peruna11]

[mustangxc]

somebody explain the overhead projector incident, please?

To his credit (though likely he was strongly encouraged by the AD or others) June spoke at a Mustang Club luncheon after the ASU debacle, but before Klemm had left.

During the Q&A a very handsome young man stood up and asked June whether he thought it was a risk to have one coach carrying the majority of the weight from a recruiting perspective (alluding to Klemm). June's response was that he had some materials prepared to address that and would show them at the end of the Q&A.

When the Q&A was complete he used an overhead projector to show a list of all the starters along with the coach that recruited them, then spent some time talking about how they had found each of the guys. Obviously since Klemm had only been recruiting for about a year, none of the starters were his. All of his signees were true freshmen (Duhe and Gottschalk) who you would not expect to be starting and clearly all of his highly regarded high school seniors that were committed to the team at that time were not going to be addressed by that list. So basically, this in no way addressed the question.

A common interpretation of the incident is that June was trying to spin that Klemm was not a good recruiter since he had not recruited any of the starters. I think a more likely interpretation is that he was saying that even without Klemm we have been able to put together the team you saw all year so do not worry that just one coach is irreplaceable. Obviously he was wrong, but that is how I interpreted it.

I interpreted it as him showing that the results up to that point had nothing to do with Klemm's recruiting and that we did well befor AK so we will manage fine without him. Depending on your point of view, he was right about that as there has been no dropoff in on the field results. The problem is that we have stayed the same without Klemm, and there are no signs of improvement on or off the field. With Klemm, we had turned the corner and were showing dramatic improvement in recruiting and I venture to say that we would have beaten Texas Tech this season had we managed to keep Klemm and sign 2 standout classes instead of the marginal classes we signed.

[stc9]

After this contract with JJ, do we have any money to pay any coach? The COC is currently picking up the tab. Each one committed, I think - don't remember, $200 k annually to pay JJ's salary. JJ has brought us a long way, but we seem to have peaked. The real question, the only real question, is how does the COC feel about their $1.4 million investment? Since these 10 guys are paying the bill - the decision to extend is more complicated than allowing anyone to save face.

I love all these ideas about new, young and exciting coaches. Who is going to pay them? Where is the money going to come from? The new TV deal doesn't cover JJ's salary. Would Chad Morris leave his current job for a $600k HC job? If 90% of PanyFans have soured on the current status of the program, what about the guys who have pledged $1.4m? Do they want to reinvest into the unknown? My couple of hundred dollars doesn't get me into the valet parking line, let alone the building where this meeting is taking place.

[Stallion]

good point- and ultimately it raises questionmarks about the sustainability of a program with 15,000 fans riding on the backs of a few deep pocket alumni. It also should be pointed out that the same alumni may not want to fund June Jones after Year 6. He has only done 1/2 the job he was hired for

[Treadway21]

In theory, by them funding Jones salary, it would put us on the football map, bring in new fans with wins, and the program would grow. By the end of the CoC's agreement the athletic department would be in a position to go forward without them footing as much of the bill. At least that is how I saw it. They would not be on the hook indefinitely.

By JJ underperforming, and us not getting the BE money infusion the Administration was expecting, it is keeping the school dependent on the CoC. That is not a good position to be in, IMO, just because their goals and the AD's goals won't always align. Plus if they sour for whatever reason and take their money off the table, we are truly up a creek.

They won't put in the money forever, and the conference realignment moves forward. No wonder the diehard fans are anxious. We have got to get this right. It is a scary proposition.

[ponyboy]

The overhead projector incident has always seemed to me to show just how shallow, b!itchy and petty some SMU fans can be, purposefully misinterpreting what JJ was trying to communicate. You know the types who judge a man by the kind of car he drives or where he lives. The fact is that JJ isn't a good cultural fit here and never was. A good contingent of us are just too full of ourselves. When he tried to bolt for ASU -- who wouldn't! -- he hurt our feelers. That's the whole story. We were looking the throw him under the proverbial bus the second he stepped off of it wearing a hawaiian shirt and no socks.

[PonySnob]

Truly awesome!

[ponyboy]

I rest my case.

[ponyinNC]

The overhead projector incident has always seemed to me to show just how shallow, b!itchy and petty some SMU fans can be, purposefully misinterpreting what JJ was trying to communicate. You know the types who judge a man by the kind of car he drives or where he lives. The fact is that JJ isn't a good cultural fit here and never was. A good contingent of us are just too full of ourselves. When he tried to bolt for ASU -- who wouldn't! -- he hurt our feelers. That's the whole story. We were looking the throw him under the proverbial bus the second he stepped off of it wearing a hawaiian shirt and no socks.

I completely disagree with this view. We were over the moon when JJ was hired. SMU even extended his contract. We saw upward momentum for 3 years and we raised our expectations (rightly so). During that time, no one wanted JJ gone. Quite the contrary.

But then ASU happened. And then Klemm left. And then we saw a huge drop in our recruiting efforts/results. That translated to on the field issues (um, some schools would fire a coach for losing to a winless Tulane team that had lost 14 straight!). Most schools would have fired their coach FOR CAUSE after interviewing for another job and telling his current commits that they would be welcome at ASU. We lost out on quality players from that fiasco.

And I ask you - remind me again why JJ did not actually get the ASU job, after the AD and Board offered it to him? Oh yes, that is right - a complete and utter backlash by the ASU fans at the proposition of having JJ as their coach.

Revisionist history gets you nowhere.

[ponyboy]

In other words, we were willing to overlook the fact that he doesn't wear socks as long as he was winning for us. You're right that I missed the part about recruiting. That's big. I'm not going to try to downplay it. But I'm not certain what else he's done wrong, other than be unconventional.

And what does the ASU backlash at having Jones have to do with anything?

[Mustangsabu]

Out of interest, name me a school that fired a coach for losing a game like the Tulane game...

The thing that gets me about the attitude towards JJ is that it suggests there has been a change. June has been consistent in his approach since he got here. His emphasis is not on recruiting conventionally. His emphasis has in my mind failed, but it's been consistent. And the Klemm thing has got to be dropped. That's not on JJ.