Fran vs. June Jones

[RGV Pony]

I understand where SO's going with June Jones. I also understand that perhaps I just don't want to be stuck sitting at Ford for 4 hour + games. That having been said, I think the point should be made that Fran's most recent experience in recruiting, game day preparation, breaking down film, etc., has been Big XII & SEC competetion, athletes, and coaching. JJ has had his greatest success in the WAC. When TCU got its shot in a bowl vs a BCS team (pre BCS, and admitttedly in a down year), TCU won and appeared well prepared.

This kind of experience is what leads to big men up front who can play vs. toads who are sacks of fat who cannot (I believe I'm borrowing that from Stallion).

I do think it's important not to judge Jones on one game, but I think these issues warrant discussion.

[StallionsModelT]

It is a no brainer IMO for June Jones. He took a moribund program to six bowls in seven years with the latest being a BCS bowl. He runs the kind of kind of exotic offensive scheme that more and more high schools are adopting and want to play in at the next level. He has a name that will get people to take notice of SMU again. I highly doubt Fran is capable of that.

[Big Hoss]

I would be happy with either one at this point. Both are upgrades in my eyes.

And as far as sitting at Ford for 4+ hour games, I wouldn't mind that at all if they were all wins!!!

[2112]

if we pick fran....he tends to get torched by passing teams. don't most cusa teams have passing offenses? that tech game would be uglier than usual. yikes!

[huskerpony]

I have been one of the biggest opponents of the non-BCS schools getting into the BCS games, but OU blew it last year. Last night was just an example of why a WAC team cannot compete with the big boys. Nothing shocking. A new rule for the BCS should be that you have to have beaten a ranked team during the season to get in. Kansas shouldn't be in there either. They played one ranked team this year and got killed.

It's easy to win when you play the easiest schedule in the country (Hawaii and Boise strength of schedule were 118 and 119 out of 119.) Still, it is really difficult to win all your games, I don't care who you are playing. Doesn't mean you are a top 10 team though. They were just outmatched last night and would be against most of the top 15 teams. Beyond that they might be competitive though with any team without a stellar defense.

What June Jones has done with no recruiting budget is amazing. All he can do is call people and try to convince them to fly in for a visit. No home visits, no high school visits, and can't show up to watch anyone play a game. Other than that he just has local kids. He obviously knows his x's and o's and how to motivate his players. Imagine what he could do with a recruiting budget. (We're still not going to be in danger of beating that UGA team any time soon, but we could eventually get ourselves in contention for being ranked.)

[SMU Football Blog]

I have been one of the biggest opponents of the non-BCS schools getting into the BCS games, but OU blew it last year. Last night was just an example of why a WAC team cannot compete with the big boys. Nothing shocking. A new rule for the BCS should be that you have to have beaten a ranked team during the season to get in. Kansas shouldn't be in there either. They played one ranked team this year and got killed.

That would not have kept Hawaii out. They beat Boise State, which was ranked at the time and still ranked at the end of the regular season.

[Billy Joe]

SMU would be fortunate to get either Fran or Jones. They are both proven Div. 1-A winners and big upgrades from our prior coaching. I also think there are going to be a lot of changes to the 'model' I do not believe SMU would throw a lot of money for a new coach if the model was not going to change. If you were giving 1M to a coaching fund wouldn't you want assurances that the uncompetitive policies impleted by SMU were going to change? Wouldn't any coach worth a damn demand policy changes before accepting the job?

[huskerpony]

I have been one of the biggest opponents of the non-BCS schools getting into the BCS games, but OU blew it last year. Last night was just an example of why a WAC team cannot compete with the big boys. Nothing shocking. A new rule for the BCS should be that you have to have beaten a ranked team during the season to get in. Kansas shouldn't be in there either. They played one ranked team this year and got killed.

That would not have kept Hawaii out. They beat Boise State, which was ranked at the time and still ranked at the end of the regular season.

You're right. Forgot they were ranked again by that point. K-State was ranked 24 for the week when Kansas played them too because they had just beaten Texas.

Still, I don't think it's a bad rule. I'm tired of everyone scheduling weak non-conference games. It would force teams from the WAC/CUSA/MWC to schedule a BCS opponent because there is no guarantee a team from their conference will be ranked. Actually Ohio State didn't play anyone ranked in the top 20 when they played them and they're in the national championship game! Ridiculous!

[BRStang]

While I do think Fran is (and would have been moreso 6 weeks ago) a better fit for SMU, I don't think June Jones would be a bad hire. I think he may have some luck with local coaches and recruits alike, both from the publicity he has gotten recently and his down-to-earth nature. He may also do much to force changes regarding the "model issues" Stallion always complains about. (Seems like he would not come without promises to have relaxed restrictions on recruiting. He also seems like the type to call someone out if that end of the bargain is not lived up to.)

Still would like to see Billick, though.

[SWC2010]

I'm leaning toward JJ, now.

JJ teams up with Youri Yenga:

should be able to lock up everybody from Trinity-- and that's no bad recruiting class...

[Lawgrad]

I have been one of the biggest opponents of the non-BCS schools getting into the BCS games, but OU blew it last year. Last night was just an example of why a WAC team cannot compete with the big boys. Nothing shocking. A new rule for the BCS should be that you have to have beaten a ranked team during the season to get in. Kansas shouldn't be in there either. They played one ranked team this year and got killed.

It's easy to win when you play the easiest schedule in the country (Hawaii and Boise strength of schedule were 118 and 119 out of 119.) Still, it is really difficult to win all your games, I don't care who you are playing. Doesn't mean you are a top 10 team though. They were just outmatched last night and would be against most of the top 15 teams. Beyond that they might be competitive though with any team without a stellar defense.

What June Jones has done with no recruiting budget is amazing. All he can do is call people and try to convince them to fly in for a visit. No home visits, no high school visits, and can't show up to watch anyone play a game. Other than that he just has local kids. He obviously knows his x's and o's and how to motivate his players. Imagine what he could do with a recruiting budget. (We're still not going to be in danger of beating that UGA team any time soon, but we could eventually get ourselves in contention for being ranked.)

First off, OU didn't "blow it" last year, they got beat by a more prepared team which could have beaten most of the teams in the Big XII, and would have absolutely dismantled your precious Huskers. As far as Kansas is concerned, they didn't get "killed" by MU. If you consider a very competitive 8 point loss getting killed, KU must have killed your Huskers, buried them, dug them up from the grave and performed unspeakable acts upon them, and did it all again in the second half. With the exception of the BCS championship game, all the other BCS games are simply football beauty pageants with a lot of money riding on them.

But I digress. I think JJ would be a great pick for the Ponies, especially if it can be wrapped up within 72 hours. A look at his roster shows 5 kids from Texas, so he does know how to recruit here, and I think with a decent budget he will have great success out there recruiting (certainly better than the high school coach at NTSU). His teams have run both a 4-3 and 3-4 defense, and part of the reason why some of their games this year were close was because the defense shifted from a 3-4 to a 4-3 this year after his DC, the great Jerry Glanville (you gotta love anyone who leaves tickets for Elvis), left to take a job at Portland State. I think he gets his players to play their guts out, and he appears able to adjust on the fly, something Phil never could figure out.

As far as last night is concerned, I think JJ ran into a buzzsaw with Georgia. If the Bulldogs had played like that all season long, instead of throwing in the towel against S. Carolina and getting hammered by an average UT team this year, they would likely be playing for the national championship. I think if you look at his entire body of work, it would be hard not to like the guy. He turned around a really bad football team and made them relevant again. If he did that at SMU, he would deserve national coach of the year accolades. Anyone who takes this job is making a tremendous leap of faith (albeit one cushioned with a boatload of money), but I think he is the best answer at this time. Let him spend some money to hire strong assistants and hopefully he can work his magic here.

[Stallion]

to all those concluding that June Jones can recruit Texas as well as Fran because he's got commitments from 5 Texans I can only conclude you have sparse knowledge of the subject. These Hawaii Texas recruits simply don't compare to the quality of the Texas Recruits Fran got at TCU-not to even mention A&M. I'm not very impressed with June's Texas haul. Only one had any offers and they weren't that impressive.

[EastStang]

Did Fran get a lot of Non-qualifiers at TCU to start with? If they hadn't qualified by start of school, he'd have been in deep kimchee.

[huskerpony]

First off, OU didn't "blow it" last year, they got beat by a more prepared team which could have beaten most of the teams in the Big XII, and would have absolutely dismantled your precious Huskers. As far as Kansas is concerned, they didn't get "killed" by MU. If you consider a very competitive 8 point loss getting killed, KU must have killed your Huskers, buried them, dug them up from the grave and performed unspeakable acts upon them, and did it all again in the second half. With the exception of the BCS championship game, all the other BCS games are simply football beauty pageants with a lot of money riding on them.

I don't think I ever said Nebraska could beat anyone over the past four years. You seem to have a chip on your shoulder about Nebraska's success from over 10 years ago. Why be so hostile? KU putting that many points up on the 112th ranked defense in the country doesn't strike me as that great of an accomplishment. Nebraska finished third to last in the Big 12. Good for KU. Way to go.

KU did get killed by Missouri. I don't know what game you watched, but it was 28-7 at the end of the third quarter and KU ran up 21 points in the fourth quarter against Missouri's reserves. They didn't score at all until 7 minutes left in the third quarter, had 130 less yards and held the ball for 15 minutes less than Missouri. That's not what I call a competitive game.

I could be wrong, but my guess is they get destroyed again tomorrow. Virginia Tech has a decent defense and KU will likely get shut down just like Hawaii did.



As for OU blowing it, you made my point exactly. They didn't take the game seriously and were ill-prepared. It still came down to the wire. OU was clearly a better team but just got outplayed that night. It has now opened the door for teams to run the table on weak schedules and get into the BCS, or in Ohio State's case, the National Championship game.

Look how bad Dan Hawkins has been at Colorado (I know he wasn't the coach for Boise last year, but it was his players). He then took Gary Barnett's players and only won two games. The WAC isn't the Big 12. It's not even CUSA. Boise snuck one out last year and good for them. Boise and Hawaii are decent teams, but not great. It is tough to go undefeated, I don't care who you are playing, but if these schools want to prove they can measure up, schedule some decent opponents. My guess is they can't hang. They have no defense and no depth.

The only point I was making is that the best teams in the country play a couple of respectable opponents outside of the conference and other schools get rewarded for taking the easy road. Most people would rather watch decent football games than Ohio State versus Akron.

If Hawaii had played even one decent team instead of Northern Colorado or Charleston Southern, I would have no gripe. They can't control how bad the WAC is. TCU did it right and took on Texas. SMU used to schedule a Big 12 team or an SEC team every year. The same reason I have yet to buy into the Big East hype. None of the teams play anyone non-conference, so there is no way to tell if they are actually any good.

[jimhagle]

to all those concluding that June Jones can recruit Texas as well as Fran because he's got commitments from 5 Texans I can only conclude you have sparse knowledge of the subject. These Hawaii Texas recruits simply don't compare to the quality of the Texas Recruits Fran got at TCU-not to even mention A&M. I'm not very impressed with June's Texas haul. Only one had any offers and they weren't that impressive.

Of course JJ wasn't able to get the stud athletes here to go to UH because of the the distance-I doubt Fran would have had any success recruiting Hawaii kids as well. There is no way to make comparisons here. JJ's name looms large now nationwide. That and his offense will attract recruits in Texas and elsewhere.