After ASU Debacle

by **EconPony'10** » Tue Sep 23, 2014 2:26 pm

Can Someone with any kind of inside information explain the reason that we did not get rid of June after the ASU deal?

Were we afraid that if we fired a coach after taking us to 3 straight bowls we might not look appealing to other coaches? Were we not able to take the financial hit and pony up the necessary $$$ for another big time coach?

I think I speak for everyone in that we were not happy when that all went down. The administration is certainly paying for the wrong decision now.

by **Rebel10** » Tue Sep 23, 2014 2:41 pm

Buyout issue and Jones was buddies with a lot a older CoC members that did not want to fire him.

by **Nacho** » Tue Sep 23, 2014 2:54 pm

not an insider but at that time june was still in good graces with just about everyone. if was pretty shocking that he was leaving. it was then explained to us that the reason he was leaving was that he was having some kind of problem with orsini. orsini was dismissed and so we thought june would be ok with things again. apparently orsini was not the sole problem june was having.

another explanation floating around was that after we beat tcu in ft worth june expected a packed house for the ucf game. instead the crowd was very small. this evidently really rubbed june the wrong way and soon a letter to the editor was written by a player that stirred a lot of controversy. it was believed that june was behind the writing of the letter.

the game at sountern miss which i attended was another key moment. we simply did not show up. players, in particular taylor reed was visibly upset with his teammates. the wheels really came off after that game. i think tulsa away was the next game. we again played very badly and never seemed to recover.

by **Dukie** » Tue Sep 23, 2014 2:57 pm

Buyout and buddies are up there, but don't discount the other question from the first post: whether SMU would've looked like a disgruntled, ungrateful place to others in the coaching fraternity. I thought he should have been fired, but that was a major concern in acting at that time. There would've been no Cowlishaw "how big a mess did June make?" articles then.

by **Rebel10** » Tue Sep 23, 2014 2:59 pm

One CoC member tried to urge the others to fire June but they did not because they liked him. June knew the talent level was about to take a hit and he indicated so publicly and tried to get out before the next season. I did not happen and here were are.

by **Bergermeister** » Tue Sep 23, 2014 3:07 pm

EconPony'10 wrote:Can Someone with any kind of inside information explain the reason that we did not get rid of June after the ASU deal?

Why would you even want to know?

by **EconPony'10** » Tue Sep 23, 2014 3:20 pm

Bergermeister wrote:
EconPony'10 wrote:Can Someone with any kind of inside information explain the reason that we did not get rid of June after the ASU deal?

Why would you even want to know?

Just wondered if there was more to it than what was obvious. It is just odd that if you look at how successful the people in the CoC are in the business world that they collectively couldn't see they were making the wrong business decision at the time.

by **RyanSMU98** » Tue Sep 23, 2014 3:21 pm

Bergermeister wrote:
EconPony'10 wrote:Can Someone with any kind of inside information explain the reason that we did not get rid of June after the ASU deal?

Why would you even want to know?

I'm guessing it is a "those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it" kind of thing. Whole thing was an avoidable mess that needs to not happen again.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

by **SMU1523** » Tue Sep 23, 2014 3:26 pm

Nacho wrote:not an insider but at that time june was still in good graces with just about everyone. if was pretty shocking that he was leaving. it was then explained to us that the reason he was leaving was that he was having some kind of problem with orsini. orsini was dismissed and so we thought june would be ok with things again. apparently orsini was not the sole problem june was having.

another explanation floating around was that after we beat tcu in ft worth june expected a packed house for the ucf game. instead the crowd was very small. this evidently really rubbed june the wrong way and soon a letter to the editor was written by a player that stirred a lot of controversy. it was believed that june was behind the writing of the letter.

the game at sountern miss which i attended was another key moment. we simply did not show up. players, in particular taylor reed was visibly upset with his teammates. the wheels really came off after that game. i think tulsa away was the next game. we again played very badly and never seemed to recover.

I am glad you brought up the Southern Miss game in Hattiesburg. If we won that game, we would have been in the Top 25 for the first time in over 25 years. I feel like that is the single biggest opportunity missed during the June Era. Being ranked would have been a bigger accomplishment than any bowl game victory.

Note: To those with foggy memories the Southern Miss game followed after our big win over ranked TCU in Fort Worth and big home win against UCF (game with low attendance)

Edit: The 2011 Season Outcome is below. As you can see, the Southern Miss game showed a lot of promise for that season. It Could have easily been a 10 win season, and any luck against Houston could have been an 11 win season.

http://www.fbschedules.com/ncaa-11/conf-usa/2011-smu-mustangs-football-schedule.php

by **Topper** » Tue Sep 23, 2014 4:02 pm

People take new jobs all of the time because the situation or pay or both are better for them. This one just turned ugly and public and gave the June haters a lot of grist for the mill. There are coaches all over the country who are in the same boat every year and no one can blame them for looking for a better gig. This happened years ago and June is gone. Let it go.

by **Rebel10** » Tue Sep 23, 2014 4:12 pm

Topper wrote:People take new jobs all of the time because the situation or pay or both are better for them. This one just turned ugly and public and gave the June haters a lot of grist for the mill. There are coaches all over the country who are in the same boat every year and no one can blame them for looking for a better gig. This happened years ago and June is gone. Let it go.

No one blamed June for looking for another job. It was how he did it. "June Jones thinks he has an ASU job. He blows off the biggest recruiting weekend in SMU football history, including not showing up for a Saturday night dinner with 20+ top recruits. He instructs Klemm and others to start recruiting the best of those kids to ASU while they are still SMU coaches. When Klemm does so and the deal falls through, Klemm is PISSED that June has made him look like an idiot and their relationship is over. June is now in the position of destroying an SMU recruiting weekend, losing his best recruiter and looking like a fool. Recruiting top players is over for June Jones at SMU. No top player thinks June wants to be there, so no top player is going to come to a school coached by somebody who clearly wants to leave and is looking for a new job. The top SMU recruiters have been burned and are leaving."

by **EconPony'10** » Tue Sep 23, 2014 4:19 pm

After looking back at that 2011 team we were so freaking close to really turning this thing around. We had it right in front of us going into Southern Miss and then the laundry list of issues/bad decisions ensued which lead us to the bottom pits of college football hell again.

I guess it's just a part of being an SMU fan though.

by **SMU2007** » Tue Sep 23, 2014 4:35 pm

Rebel10 wrote:
Topper wrote:People take new jobs all of the time because the situation or pay or both are better for them. This one just turned ugly and public and gave the June haters a lot of grist for the mill. There are coaches all over the country who are in the same boat every year and no one can blame them for looking for a better gig. This happened years ago and June is gone. Let it go.

No one blamed June for looking for another job. It was how he did it. "June Jones thinks he has an ASU job. He blows off the biggest recruiting weekend in SMU football history, including not showing up for a Saturday night dinner with 20+ top recruits. He instructs Klemm and others to start recruiting the best of those kids to ASU while they are still SMU coaches. When Klemm does so and the deal falls through, Klemm is [deleted] that June has made him look like an idiot and their relationship is over. June is now in the position of destroying an SMU recruiting weekend, losing his best recruiter and looking like a fool. Recruiting top players is over for June Jones at SMU. No top player thinks June wants to be there, so no top player is going to come to a school coached by somebody who clearly wants to leave and is looking for a new job. The top SMU recruiters have been burned and are leaving."

And this is why June can GFH as far as I'm concerned.

by **SMU Football Blog** » Tue Sep 23, 2014 4:39 pm

unfortunately for June, he was paid above market. When the ASU job was pulled out from under him, it became impossible for him to leave SMU without also leaving money on the table, which he and Super Agent Leigh Steinberg[TRADE MARK SIGN] were unwilling to do. It was this fact that was the source of the seeming animosity and what I can only describe as "anti-recruiting" by June Jones.

I have known people in this situation and they are miserable people. They are paid more than they should, hate their circumstances and become convinced that (1) they are unappreciated; (2) they should be paid more. This lasts until they are gone.

by **Treadway21** » Wed Sep 24, 2014 10:57 am

Good posts. Two words Leigh Steinberg.

Two more words Overhead Projector.

Just seeing that thing there (not to mention the content of the slides) showed how much trouble SMU was in.

How can a guy that uses an overhead projector complain about facilities.

Steinberg and Jones are both living in the eighties.