New coaches learn their way around
Posted: Mon Jul 21, 2008 10:14 am
http://www.al.com/sports/birminghamnews ... xml&coll=2
" New SMU head coach June Jones was the architect of a Hawaii offense that piled up big passing yards and points and catapulted the Warriors into the national spotlight. Southern Miss's Larry Fedora mixed in the running game a little more as the offensive coordinator at Oklahoma State and Houston's Kevin Sumlin did the same as the co-offensive coordinator at Oklahoma, but then both were accustomed to scoring a lot of points.
"I think with the new coaches coming into the league, it's going to be a lot more finesse - even more than it was," Snyder said.
Jones spent the past nine seasons turning Hawaii from a program that didn't win a game in 1998 to a team that went 12-0 in the 2007 regular season and earned a Sugar Bowl berth against Georgia.
He competed against four current C-USA members when Rice, SMU, Tulsa and UTEP were Western Athletic Conference members. Other than that, the closest he came to C-USA was when one of its members would practice on Hawaii's field during preparation for the Hawaii Bowl.
While he's far from a C-USA historian, Jones said he expects better top-to-bottom talent than his teams faced in the WAC.
"In the WAC, you had maybe two teams in the league you were going to beat (every year)," Jones said. "When I look at this conference schedule, I don't think you can say that. I think anybody can beat anybody on Saturday."
