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Sure Jones would be a great hire. But if he takes an NFL job, or stays at UH, here we sit again. If this happens, I hope SO has Fran's cell phone number and gets him signed immediately. Every day that goes by is not good.

Once we have confirmation on what June Jones wants to do if its not going to be with us, then Fran is getting the call two minutes afterwards.

You know, the real question to me is if you had the choice of hiring Fran a month ago or the 'possibility' of JJ this Friday with the fall-back of immediately hiring Fran, which would you choose.

To me, both are such an upgrade over the past that I am not unhappy with either.

If that is indeed the case, I think a lot of posters on this board WAY over-reacted to SO and prove why THEY would be lousy decision-makers.

Now if Coker or Gailey is hired, that is another story.

I CONCUR...

Give me the sure thing versus betting on the come anytime. I would have taken Fran the second he signed his buyout deal with the aggies. We would have had the majority of his coaching staff on board after the aggie bowl game last week. By the time our ongoing process is complete, Fran would have already been on the job for approximately 6 - 8weeks - if not more if this thing drags.

Friar,

I too would have taken Fran asap, would probably select Fran over JJ if BOTH were available Dec 1st, but if we end up with JJ or Fran 35+ days later, it is still a big improvement and SO should not be faulted.

AND I would take Fran or JJ over PJ.

I agree, SoCal. Both will be a huge improvement. With either of those two, I think our players will be shocked at the level of attention to detail and sophistication they will bring to the table............

JJ is a wow hire. Fran is a Wow, Jr. hire due to the fact he was fired by A&M.

It all depends on how things turn out w/ June Jones. If in fact June Jones is our new head coach, then all the waiting and hand-wringing over this thing was worth it in spades. If Jones turns us down and we hire Fran then this whole process will have been a massively mishandled disaster. As one poster mentioned earlier, Fran could have been hired the day after A&M beat Texas and hit the ground running with recruiting. Instead, it will be looked at as a joke by the media that SMU was unable to secure their top two or three candidates and had to settle for Fran in January.

StallionsModelT wrote:It all depends on how things turn out w/ June Jones. If in fact June Jones is our new head coach, then all the waiting and hand-wringing over this thing was worth it in spades. If Jones turns us down and we hire Fran then this whole process will have been a massively mishandled disaster. As one poster mentioned earlier, Fran could have been hired the day after A&M beat Texas and hit the ground running with recruiting. Instead, it will be looked at as a joke by the media that SMU was unable to secure their top two or three candidates and had to settle for Fran in January.

I disagree, SO will be seen as someone who went after a big fish and ended up with Fran.

There is nothing to be embarrassed about.

SoCalPony,

I agree. There is nothing to be ashamed of. But the perception will be that SMU still was unable to get the guy or guys that they really wanted and had to settle for a coach they could have had two months ago. I applaud Orsini for truly going out and trying to get a big fish ala Paul Johnson or June Jones. But in the end we would have nothing to show for it except that we were "close".

Three Putt wrote:Sure Jones would be a great hire. But if he takes an NFL job, or stays at UH, here we sit again. If this happens, I hope SO has Fran's cell phone number and gets him signed immediately. Every day that goes by is not good.

I think that will be the case

Who says Fran will come here? Maybe he said no thanks and that is a reason why we still do not have a coach.