SI.com showing SMU some love
Posted: Mon Nov 16, 2009 2:47 amFrom Stewart Mandel's weekly College Overtime column ...
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/w ... ime/2.html
"Smaller story, but I'm sure you're following it ...
Ten years ago, June Jones took over a Hawaii team that had gone 0-12 the year before and immediately led it to a 9-4 record and WAC championship. It seems Jones is losing his touch. This time, it took him a full two years to resuscitate a formerly hapless program.
SMU (6-4, 5-1 C-USA), which posted its second straight 1-11 record in Jones' debut season last fall, took over sole possession of first place in Conference USA's West Division (supplanting nationally-ranked Houston) with a 35-31 win over UTEP on Saturday. The Mustangs got the win despite giving up 627 yards, sealing the game on a fourth-and-6 sack at the SMU 14-yard-line in the final seconds.
With one more victory, either next week at 5-5 Marshall or Nov. 28 against 3-7 Tulane, the Mustangs will lock up their first bowl berth since 1984.
SMU fans have suffered through two miserable decades and five different coaching regimes watching a team that seemingly never could recover from its infamous NCAA Death Penalty in 1987, which shut down the program for two seasons. After firing Phil Bennett in 2007, school officials spent 71 days waiting out Jones, then in the midst of Hawaii's run to the Sugar Bowl, before luring him with a reported $2 million annual contract, a staggering amount for C-USA.
Jones' famed Run and Shoot offense hasn't gotten into full gear just yet, but it's been good enough for the Mustangs to rank 22nd nationally in passing offense (271.7 yards per game). Freshman quarterback Kyle Padron, who stepped in for injured starter Bo Levi Mitchell in SMU's Oct. 24 loss to Houston, was a modest 17-of-24 for 244 yards, two touchdowns and two picks against the Miners -- but he's 3-0 as the Mustangs' starter.
Jones' last postseason trip did not go so well; Georgia crushed his Warriors in the 2008 Sugar Bowl. If all goes well, he could be returning to New Orleans -- for the New Orleans Bowl -- or one of C-USA's other bowl partners. The faithful have waited 25 years for any taste of the postseason."
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/w ... ime/2.html
"Smaller story, but I'm sure you're following it ...
Ten years ago, June Jones took over a Hawaii team that had gone 0-12 the year before and immediately led it to a 9-4 record and WAC championship. It seems Jones is losing his touch. This time, it took him a full two years to resuscitate a formerly hapless program.
SMU (6-4, 5-1 C-USA), which posted its second straight 1-11 record in Jones' debut season last fall, took over sole possession of first place in Conference USA's West Division (supplanting nationally-ranked Houston) with a 35-31 win over UTEP on Saturday. The Mustangs got the win despite giving up 627 yards, sealing the game on a fourth-and-6 sack at the SMU 14-yard-line in the final seconds.
With one more victory, either next week at 5-5 Marshall or Nov. 28 against 3-7 Tulane, the Mustangs will lock up their first bowl berth since 1984.
SMU fans have suffered through two miserable decades and five different coaching regimes watching a team that seemingly never could recover from its infamous NCAA Death Penalty in 1987, which shut down the program for two seasons. After firing Phil Bennett in 2007, school officials spent 71 days waiting out Jones, then in the midst of Hawaii's run to the Sugar Bowl, before luring him with a reported $2 million annual contract, a staggering amount for C-USA.
Jones' famed Run and Shoot offense hasn't gotten into full gear just yet, but it's been good enough for the Mustangs to rank 22nd nationally in passing offense (271.7 yards per game). Freshman quarterback Kyle Padron, who stepped in for injured starter Bo Levi Mitchell in SMU's Oct. 24 loss to Houston, was a modest 17-of-24 for 244 yards, two touchdowns and two picks against the Miners -- but he's 3-0 as the Mustangs' starter.
Jones' last postseason trip did not go so well; Georgia crushed his Warriors in the 2008 Sugar Bowl. If all goes well, he could be returning to New Orleans -- for the New Orleans Bowl -- or one of C-USA's other bowl partners. The faithful have waited 25 years for any taste of the postseason."