SMU Recruiting Plan:

[Pony^]

Hit Dallas hard

Jones hoping area recruits take notice of new offensive system


10:12 PM CST on Saturday, January 26, 2008
By TODD WILLS / The Dallas Morning News
[email protected]

Junior college quarterback Kevin Craft said this week that it's hard to beat new SMU coach June Jones' Run and Shoot offense.

It's a message SMU coaches hope recruits in Dallas, in the state and across the nation are paying attention to. Finding players that fit Jones' system is essential to SMU's recruiting efforts, along with establishing the Dallas area as a home base.

Craft, the ex-San Diego State quarterback who threw 44 touchdown passes last season for Mount San Antonio College in California, is SMU's top recruiting priority.

And the 6-5, 205-pound Craft seems to be favoring the Mustangs. He has eliminated Hawaii, the school he was probably headed to because of Jones. Craft's visit last weekend to SMU made a good impression.

"I really felt strong about them," said Craft, No. 61 on Rivals.com's Junior College Top 100. "I felt real comfortable with the staff. The school is unbelievable, and the facilities are top of the line. But most important is the coaching staff."

Craft, who has two years of eligibility remaining, said he probably would make his decision Monday or Tuesday. He visited UCLA this weekend, feeling an obligation after getting a scholarship offer from new coach Rick Neuheisel.

Craft is a main target for SMU, but with only four commitments and the Feb. 6 signing day less than two weeks away, the Mustangs' new staff is focused on ending with a good recruiting year. An emphasis is filling the rest of a class of what should be 18 to 21 recruits with players from the Dallas area.

"He's combing this area hard," Randy Ross, SMU's director of football operations, said of Jones. "He wants to recruit this area. He wants to recruit it so hard he's going to give every coach on the staff an area in Dallas."

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent ... 8fedf.html

[papawasamustang]

This is very exciting stuff !

I love the PLAN !!

[SMU_DAD_00]

Size and wanting to play at SMU.. I hope it works out.....Let the blue chips come, do you still call top recruits 'blue chips'?

[LakeHighlandsPony]

Anybody else feel Junebug changing the culture of losing around here

[ThadFilms]

Anybody else feel Junebug changing the culture of losing around here

A little late to the party on that one Wildcat. Yes, yes indeedy and it's all very refreshing.

[Peruna_Ate_My_Rolex]

To steal the line from the Musical Carousel...June is busting out all over!

[Big Hoss]

"He wants to recruit this area. He wants to recruit it so hard he's going to give every coach on the staff an area in Dallas."

Best line in the article, if you ask me.

[StallionsModelT]

This is such great news. Bennett was very ineffective in securing talent in Dallas and instead chose to go to his rural East Texas roots for recruits. Nothing wrong with that, but if we can establish pipelines to some programs in/around Dallas with Coach Jones' offensive scheme, we should be able to keep some kids who recently have been going to Tech/Okie State/Tulsa here at SMU. Getting Dallas in our back pocket will be a major asset for us moving forward.

BTW, rain in San Diego tonight. Was not helpful in my hunt for tail in the Gaslamp.

[OC Mustang]

This is such great news. Bennett was very ineffective in securing talent in Dallas and instead chose to go to his rural East Texas roots for recruits. Nothing wrong with that, but if we can establish pipelines to some programs in/around Dallas with Coach Jones' offensive scheme, we should be able to keep some kids who recently have been going to Tech/Okie State/Tulsa here at SMU. Getting Dallas in our back pocket will be a major asset for us moving forward.

BTW, rain in San Diego tonight. Was not helpful in my hunt for tail in the Gaslamp.

No he didn't...Bennett that is...he didn't establish any kind of pipeline to East Texas. Bennett hung his entire recruiting lucky horseshoe on his summer camps for athletes. With few exceptions, he rarely strayed outside that market. I have heard coaches from Marshall (Justin Smart being the exception), Longview, John Tyler, Tatum, Elysian Fields, & Henderson say the same thing in the last two years that I have been back here: SMU has been virtually absent from recruiting out here.

[RE Tycoon]

BTW, rain in San Diego tonight. Was not helpful in my hunt for tail in the Gaslamp.

You should be in PB, like taking candy from a baby, if you're in to 21 year old college girls. Personally I am.

[chillinfool]

I didn't see this posted yet, looks like Craft is going to UCLA which is good news for JW.

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/recruitin ... erId=57604

[smupony94]

I didn't see this posted yet, looks like Craft is going to UCLA which is good news for JW.

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/recruitin ... erId=57604

I think it was posted in the recruiting section on MOnday

[Dutch]

I didn't see this posted yet, looks like Craft is going to UCLA which is good news for JW.

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/recruitin ... erId=57604

I think it was posted in the recruiting section on MOnday

Yeah, it was. I think that's actually the reason we have a recruiting page, but some posters must be running an old version of netscape navigator and not see those links.

[ThadFilms]

I didn't see this posted yet, looks like Craft is going to UCLA which is good news for JW.

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/recruitin ... erId=57604

I think it was posted in the recruiting section on MOnday

Yeah, it was. I think that's actually the reason we have a recruiting page, but some posters must be running an old version of netscape navigator and not see those links.

Netscape???? Mosaic all the way.