Why couldn't June do a better job replacing assistants?

[JasonB]

I know it is easy to point at ASU and all of that stuff and say June quit on the program.

Another thing that stands out to me is that our most troublesome positions have been at the positions the original assistants left.

Special Teams - when Gantz passed, everything went downhill.

OL: McKnight a major energy and intensity guy on the staff and was part of growing the young linemen recruited under Bennett, but things have never been stable ever since. Even Klemm was guilty of recruiting mostly CA and guys didn't stick around. We haven't had an average offensive line since the first group of seniors left. Now we have an RB coach leading the OL.

WR: Reinbold developed the Bennett players into pros. Phillips is a good recruiter, but may not be the best coach and three top tier recruit receivers have left since he arrived.

Strength: Vic. We all loved Vic.

It seems like part of the problem may be that all three of those originals had a ton of energy that wasn't replaced when they left (Klemm did have good energy though). Another is that they were all involved in recruiting in some fashion, which was never fully replaced.

But, the big question is why were they replaced with lesser coaches? Is this really a June crony thing (the easy answer)? Or was the assistant coach budget cut and those were the only guys who would fill positions?

Does anyone out there know? Should more of the blame be placed on the administration for not providing a bigger budget for assistants?

Throwing it out there because it is a problem that needs to be solved before we bring the next staff in... LB's rock star assistants are just as important to the program as he is.

[StallionsModelT]

Its easy to point to ASU because its the obvious answer to so many questions about June Jones over these last several years. He quit. End of story.

[Rebel10]

You don't need rock star assistants to drive less than 75 miles to schools in the area. Stop it, just stop it. Didn't you also say this was the most talented team we have had since the DP or since JJ got here? Looks like we have another Mexmustang on our hands. June was going to hire his buddies anyway. He probably wouldn't have even know how to identify a good recruiter and he lucked into Klemm. Also, no excuse for what happened at UNT. That was bad head coaching period. JJ did not even hardly go to the high school coaches clinics.

[blackoutpony]

Jason, stop being an apologist for the guy. He's gone and everyone is ready to move on.

Let it go.

[JasonB]

I am absolutely not being an apologist. I agreed with letting him go. I am concerned that the school isn't going to put the necessary money towards hiring quality assistant coaches.

I hope that the problem was simply jones hiring incompetent buddies. I really do.

But someone needs to make sure we have the money set aside to hire a quality coach and great assistants. Just a head coach won't do. Larry has been great but it is the package of assistants that make the program roll.

You guys think I am trying to protect someone but I am not. I am trying to make sure everything is put in place to take us to where we need to go moving forward. I think it is in all of our best interests to make sure the next hire can take us to the top.

[blackoutpony]

I am absolutely not being an apologist. I agreed with letting him go. I am concerned that the school isn't going to put the necessary money towards hiring quality assistant coaches.

I hope that the problem was simply jones hiring incompetent buddies. I really do.

But someone needs to make sure we have the money set aside to hire a quality coach and great assistants. Just a head coach won't do. Larry has been great but it is the package of assistants that make the program roll.

You guys think I am trying to protect someone but I am not. I am trying to make sure everything is put in place to take us to where we need to go moving forward. I think it is in all of our best interests to make sure the next hire can take us to the top.

You should really get a rivals account. Along with about a 1/5 of regular ponyfans.

[Rebel10]

June would have hired his buddies anyway. UTSA, UNT and Texas State have lesser budget than SMU but they hired assistants with Texas ties. Money was but issue. The issue was the person selecting the people being hired and that was the head coach..

[ponyte]

To be honest, I am not interested in rearview mirror naval gazing. Jones is gone. I could couldn't care any less about analyzing his administration. I am interested in Mason and what he does and the next HC and what he can do.

[Pony81]

He couldn't hire decent assistants because the college coaching fraternity saw with the ASU debacle that JJ was checked out and this thing would not end well.

Assistant coaching is a very precarious job. Get the stench of a loser on you and you are a high schooled coach for life. The inability to get quality assistants once the first batch left is very telling.

[GiddyUp]

Lets see.. He had the OL guy for one year, mumme for 1 yr, a drunk special teams coach, a crusty guy in Hearing, deadbeat Morrison, Timmy Chang.. Should I continue? Terrible.

[ponyswim]

Jason, I think that is a fair question - the asst coach salary situation, and one that our next coach will address as part of the hiring process. I would think it is pretty likely that our next coach would have talked to both June and Bennett before they interview at SMU. It would not be doing your homework if you didn't.
The big number for SMU will likely be how much are you going to pay for a football staff - $4million, or whatever. No just what are you going to pay for a head coach.
Hopefully this will be an area where SMU will "lead" - like they did with the basketball staff.

[San Antonio Mustang]

I also think it is a legitimate question. If you don't make post action analysis, particularly when things go wrong, you are doomed to make the same mistakes. I never heard June complain about the budget for Assistants. Since he was not bashful about complaining, I assume the budget was adequate. My guess is he approached hiring Assistants the same way he approached recruiting. He didn't search for good candidates, he just took someone he knew would not challenge him and happened to submit a resume. But the Admin should examine the issue and be sure the next HC understands the value of top flight assistants.

[Rebel10]

The head coach still sets the tone for recruiting. UNT's budget is less than our budget and they out coached us and had recruited better players. It's not like we had the worst budget in the AAC. Larry Brown sets the tone in recruiting because he is out there recruiting himself. As SMT has said that money will be there. Remember USF had the best recruiting class in the conference because their coach was on the recruiting trail a lot. I guess UCF must have some monstrously highly paid staff because June only beat them once. Again, I am quite sure we paid more to our staff than UNT paid to their staff and they beat us by 37 points.

[Rebel10]

He seemed to only hire people that were part of his circle.

[Digetydog]

I also think it is a legitimate question. If you don't make post action analysis, particularly when things go wrong, you are doomed to make the same mistakes. I never heard June complain about the budget for Assistants. Since he was not bashful about complaining, I assume the budget was adequate. My guess is he approached hiring Assistants the same way he approached recruiting. He didn't search for good candidates, he just took someone he knew would not challenge him and happened to submit a resume. But the Admin should examine the issue and be sure the next HC understands the value of top flight assistants.

It is a very legitimate question. Great assistants are critical to the success of the program. They must be able to recruit AND be able to prepare our guys to compete. Given the current talent level on the team, we are going to need smart, innovative assistants to maximize the potential of every single guy.

For example, if we hire the 29 year old OC at TAMU, would he be able to attract "top talent" to help him out. Looking at Houston (post-Sumlin), it appears to me that Sumlin took all of the "top talent" (Kingsbury, Spavital, Beaty) with him and left the B team behind at UH.

Alternatively, we might decide to adopt the Larry Brown Plan II -> Mack Brown. As a UT grad, I can tell you that Mack Brown with bad assistants is a recipe for failure.

Personally, I think that June's problems with assistants were not based upon salary. He wanted "his" guys and that was that.