Been away for a while... but does anyone think that JJ is

[NewPonyFan]

The "guy" that Steve O has been 'waiting' for?

I think that if he does land him, he saves face somewhat. If he doesn't he is in deep you know what.

When you hear the name June Jones, do you say, "WOW!"?

I don't.

[FWMustangGirl]

I say wow. Mostly because it is a name I've recognized since I was in college, and because of what he was able to do at Hawaii. Plus it passes the "wow, how is SMU gonna land him?" test with non-SMU folks.

[PonyPride]

Hawaii finished the regular season ranked No. 10 in the final Associated Press and ESPN polls. If he brings that pedigree to SMU, I'd call that pretty WOW-ish.

[Treadway21]

How many coaches in NCAA have gone the regular season undefeated? No matter what the strength of the conference is - it doesn't happen very often.

[The_RichAlum]

A lot of the coaches that have been mentioned/interviewed would be well above the typical SMU hire, including June Jones.

I think it was a mistake to wait this long for a coach, even if we do get Jones. There is no guarentee he will be successful here. Jones will have to bring with him a quality staff, especially a defensive coordinator. Offense wasn't exactly our biggest problem this past year and that seems to be Jones speciality.

Jones has won 2 WAC titles in 9 years.....that is respectable, but not dominating. Fran, Coker, Bower, Neuheisal etc... all have respectable coaching achievements as well. I don't think Jones is head and shoulders above any of the other coaches SMU has spoken with

This coaching search has been a failure, the only question at this point, is how large a failure?

[NewPonyFan]

How many coaches in NCAA have gone the regular season undefeated? No matter what the strength of the conference is - it doesn't happen very often.

Oh yeah - a guy named Terry Bowden... but SMU didn't want him. He only won 20 straight in the SEC - but hey, the SEC is certainly no WAC.

[Treadway21]

my point exactly - there are only a few out there.

[mrydel]

[Oh yeah - a guy named Terry Bowden... but SMU didn't want him. He only won 20 straight in the SEC - but hey, the SEC is certainly no WAC.

Have you posted this on the message boards of the other 17 schools that did not interview him and WVA would did not want him even after the Governor got a call from daddy?

[Alaric]

This coaching search has been a failure, the only question at this point, is how large a failure?

Wrong. If our losing trend is changed starting 2-3 years down the line, the search hasn't been a failure...you can't say that at this point, it's purely your opinion. Concerning Fran, he's lost a LOT of street cred over the past 4-5 years and a lot of assistants who helped him become successful in the first place.

[NewPonyFan]

[Oh yeah - a guy named Terry Bowden... but SMU didn't want him. He only won 20 straight in the SEC - but hey, the SEC is certainly no WAC.

Have you posted this on the message boards of the other 17 schools that did not interview him and WVA would did not want him even after the Governor got a call from daddy?

Why so nasty?? Georgia Tech interviewed him. West Virginia interviewed him. I'm just wondering why SMU wouldn't even talk with him? It just doesn't make any sense to me. It wouldn't have cost anything to sit down and visit with him for an hour.

Oh - and that "phone call from Daddy" came after the interview - fwiw.

[mrydel]

[Oh yeah - a guy named Terry Bowden... but SMU didn't want him. He only won 20 straight in the SEC - but hey, the SEC is certainly no WAC.

Have you posted this on the message boards of the other 17 schools that did not interview him and WVA would did not want him even after the Governor got a call from daddy?

Why so nasty?? Georgia Tech interviewed him. West Virginia interviewed him. I'm just wondering why SMU wouldn't even talk with him? It just doesn't make any sense to me. It wouldn't have cost anything to sit down and visit with him for an hour.

Oh - and that "phone call from Daddy" came after the interview - fwiw.

Exactly. Had they wanted him daddy would not have had to call. Do you not realize he is not a "hot" item in coaching searches.

[NewPonyFan]

Just because he is not a "hot item" as you put it, does not mean that he's probably one of the best coaches in the business - period. Obviously, being in the booth and not on the sidelines for the last nine years has hurt him in his quest to return to coaching.

But the skills required to be a great head coach do not just disappear.

He'll be a great coach somewhere for some school - if not this season, then next. From everything I've read about him, he is committed to it 100% and thought that it may be a two-year process.

I think if SMU can land June Jones - we'll be fine - as long as some of the other things happen that need to happen.

Who knows - maybe Hawaii will hire TB

[The_RichAlum]

This coaching search has been a failure, the only question at this point, is how large a failure?

Wrong. If our losing trend is changed starting 2-3 years down the line, the search hasn't been a failure...you can't say that at this point, it's purely your opinion. Concerning Fran, he's lost a LOT of street cred over the past 4-5 years and a lot of assistants who helped him become successful in the first place.

We could have hired a good coach quickly without damaging our recruiting this year. I already consider the damaged recruiting to be a failure and the yes the impacts of the coach will be measure in the future.

[planoponyfan]

Do I think Jones is the guy Orsini was waiting for? That's really a two part question. Was he waiting for him right after he fired Bennett? No. It's possible he made some contact with Steinberg about Jones at the outset and was told he'd have to wait until after the Sugar Bowl to talk. He likely didn't want to wait that long and he tried to get Paul Johnson. When that didn't work, he moved on to some others with Jones still clearly in the mix down the road. Well, we're now down the road far enough that Jones is a possibility. So it's possible he's been waiting on Jones since Johnson said no while also talking to others. Who knows. I'll give Orsini credit for keeping this whole thing pretty tight-lipped.

Is Jones a "wow" hire? Absolutely! We were all going to say "wow" over Johnson. However, his team wasn't undefeated and in the top 10. I don't think anyone at the start thought we were going to get a coach that had a top 10 program. To me, Jones is a much bigger "wow" than Johnson.

Regarding Bowden: SMU is not alone in not wanting this guy. I don't know why, but I suspect they do and have a good reason for it. Either its the fact he's been out of coaching so long or there's something we just don't know about yet. Who knows. It's hard to be critical of Orsini on this point when everyone else seems to feel the same way.

As I've said before, the damage done by the loss of recruiting is minimal at SMU. It's not like we've had tons of great recruiting classes in the past few years with coaches going out there beating the bushes trying to get people to come here. Even if we don't have a coach by signing day we'll probably get some recruits. If we get a good coach and show that we're serious about turning this thing around, the recruiting situation will change.

There's no way to judge the success or failure of this coaching search until we see what the team does on the field next year.